Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has told Nigerian doctors planning to emigrate to the United Kingdom to take note of the fact that they will not be paid hazard allowance if they do so.
Ehanire said this during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 on Thursday.
“I think we are one of the few countries giving hazard allowance. This UK where they are going, there is no hazard allowance, they don’t give doctors hazard allowance but you just get your salary.
“They say it is part of your job and that is what you are trained for. They don’t pay you anything but here apart from your salary we try to add something to it with the hope that you will stay,” he said.
Last month, the Nigerian government released N4.5 billion for the payment of hazard allowance of doctors across the country for the months of April and May.
Ehanire’s statement is in response to the attempt by about 58 doctors to travel to the United Kingdom a week ago.
The doctors, who had received provisional employment in the UK, were intercepted by the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos because they had no visas.
Nigerian doctors routinely migrate to U.S, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK and many other nations across the globe in search of better pay and working conditions.
It is estimated that at least 12 Nigerian doctors leave the shores of this country weekly to practice overseas.
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