In what could become a life-changing opportunity for Ghana’s unemployed nurses, the government has announced plans to facilitate their employment abroad. The news has sparked widespread excitement among job-seeking health professionals and ignited fresh hope in the country’s struggling employment landscape.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh revealed in an interview with TV XYZ that the government is actively engaging with several foreign countries including: the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, and Germany to secure job placements for Ghanaian nurses. The move, he explained, is a response to the country’s limited healthcare infrastructure, which cannot absorb the rapidly growing number of qualified nurses.
“Even if all nurses were employed locally, we will still have nurses who remain at home,” the minister stated, highlighting the mismatch between the training of healthcare professionals and the number of available workstations within Ghana.
According to Akandoh, these bilateral talks aim to establish formal agreements that will allow Ghanaian nurses to be deployed legally and professionally to countries in need of healthcare personnel. “We are still talking to these countries so that the government can deploy Ghanaians to work,” he said, assuring that the initiative is well underway.
The announcement has been met with enthusiasm by nursing graduates who have long faced extended periods of unemployment despite completing their training. Many view this opportunity as a chance not only for personal advancement but also to gain international experience that could be valuable upon their return.
Experts have lauded the initiative as a smart way to manage Ghana’s healthcare human resource surplus while strengthening ties with international partners. If successful, it may serve as a model for addressing professional unemployment across other sectors.
As negotiations progress, thousands of nurses are watching closely and hopeful that their next patient could be thousands of miles away.
