Due to Nigeria’s inclusion on the red list of nations that are ineligible for recruitment, the UK government decides to stop considering Nigerian health professionals for employment.
This resolution was created in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) listing Nigeria as one of the 55 nations with serious workforce shortages.

Until a government-to-government agreement is in place, health and social care businesses in the UK will no longer aggressively seek out candidates from these nations.
This is stated in a statement titled “Code of Conduct for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel in England” that can be seen on the UK government’s website.
“Consistent with the WHO Global Code of Practice principles and articles, and as explicitly called for by the WHO Global Code of Practice 10-year review, the listed countries should be prioritised for health personnel development and health system-related support, provided with safeguards that discourage active international recruitment of health personnel.
“Countries on the list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement.
“Countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards list are graded red in the code. If a government-to-government agreement is put in place between a partner country, which restricts recruiting organisations to the terms of the agreement, the country is added to the amber list.”
The United Kingdom stopped hiring healthcare personnel from Nigeria and 46 other countries in 2021. This choice was chosen because of the growing exodus of health and social care workers from low- and lower-middle-income nations, which jeopardizes their ability to meet their goals for health and social care.
11,055 doctors who had their medical training in Nigeria are currently licensed to practice in the UK, according to information from the UK General Medical Council.