Pattern of Spread of Medical Schools in Nigeria

The pattern of spread of medical schools in Nigeria has an effect on the general availability of doctors nationwide and their retention in their primary area of training. Using statistics from the National Population Commission and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, we determined the pattern of distribution in the geo-political zones in Nigeria. There were 25 fully accredited and 6 partially accredited medical schools. There were 15 Federal, 12 State and four privately owned medical schools, nine in the South South zone with a population of 21,044,081, seven in the South East zone with a population of 16,395,555 and seven in the South West with 27,722,432. In the North Central zone, there were 4 medical schools with a population of 20,369,956, three in the North West with 35,915,467 and only one in the North East with a population of 18,984,299. In each geo-political zone, the mean distribution was 5 medical schools, 3 federal owned, 2 states owned. Medical schools are not evenly distributed in Nigeria. While the North East, North West and North Central zones have below the National average of the total medical schools, the South East, South West and South South zones have above the National average. Also, the number of medical schools in each zone had a linear relationship to the percentage population that completed secondary school education. The Governments especially States should develop more medical training institutions especially in the geo-political zones below the National average of medical schools (Northern part of the country). In addition, secondary school completion rate should be improved so also creation of more medical schools and expanding of current capacity of existing medical schools to increase doctors in North East, North West and North central geopolitical zones. Keywords: Medical schools, Nigeria, geopolitical zones