By Henry Neondo
As 2025 comes to close, Kenya continues to lead Africa in having the highest number nurses migrating for what a recent study shows to driven by economic factors, job security, and career development. Majority of theses nurses go to the UK, US and Canada. Not to be left behind however, nurses from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa have also taken to the skies allegedly to better their lives.
According to a study led by Fuseini Adam, Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada and published in BMC Health Services Research, low income, poor economic growth and inadequate investment in African health systems significantly drive African nurse emigration, complicating efforts to attain universal health coverage — a situation where everyone gets needed health services (prevention, treatment, rehab) without financial hardship, a global goal with slow but steady progress.
Evaline Langat, Research Centre for Public Health, Equity and Human Flourishing (PHEHF), Torrens University Australia, Adelaide says in a study of last year she did in collaboration with others that countries use varied approaches like Social Health Insurance (Gabon, Nigeria, Kenya), Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI), taxation, and strengthening public systems, but face major hurdles like worker shortages, poor infrastructure, funding gaps, and access for informal workers, requiring integrated strategies, more funding, and political will to protect citizens from poverty due to illness.
According to researchers, a World Health Organization report in 2020 showed that Africa does not have a nursing workforce proportionate to the targets for achieving UHC and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For instance, the recommended nurse-to-population ratio for meeting UHC target is 83 nurses per 10,000 or 8.3 nurses per 1,000 population, however, Sub-Saharan Africa has fewer than 20 nurses per 10,000 or 2.0 nurses per 1,000 population.
This reflects the widening gap in nursing density variation in a continent with a population of over one billion but only 3 precent of global health workforce.
The study warns that recruitment strategies for nurse from Africa, which are often unregulated, can lead to exploitation and human trafficking.
Researchers urge governments in Africa to prioritize raising nurses’ wages to realistic levels and creating social safety systems to support nurses facing economic hardships.
“Policies could include scholarship programs for nurses’ children, subsidies for housing, healthcare support to improve their quality of life,” the study notes.
Furthermore, it urges governments to implement policies aimed at reducing violence, resolving conflicts, and promoting political stability to create safer working environments for nurses and other health care professionals.
Take Sudan for example, the latest report from the World Health Organisation shows that Attacks on health care in the country are becoming deadlier and more widespread, cutting off access to life-saving services and placing health workers at serious risk.
Since the conflict began in April 2023, WHO has verified 201 attacks on health care in Sudan, resulting in 1858 deaths and 490 injuries. In 2025 alone, 65 attacks were verified, causing more than 1620 deaths and 276 injuries. These deaths account for more than 80% of all deaths from attacks on health care verified by WHO in complex humanitarian emergencies globally in 2025.
“Attacks on health care in Sudan have become increasingly deadlier, further undermining access to care at a time when it is most needed,” said Dr Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Sudan. “Health workers have been providing health services with exceptional courage and dedication under extremely challenging conditions. They need protection, not bombardment or detention.”
This Canadian study found that nurses migrate to countries both within and outside Africa, with their choice of destination being diverse and impacted by multiple factors. In the past, Nurses from countries such as Ghana and Zimbabwe primarily moved to South Africa, but this trend has recently shifted towards countries in the OECD area due to higher spending power and better conditions of work.