The Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has revealed that over 100,000 trained health professionals in Ghana are currently unemployed.
During an interview on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, he explained the growing gap between the number of trained workers and the government’s ability to hire them into the public health system.
The Minister said the problem has become worse in recent years. He explained that when the current government took office, about 74,000 trained professionals were without jobs.
By the end of 2025, that number had increased to around 100,000.
“When we took over, initially, it was around 74,000 people, but around the end of 2025, we were around 100,000 health professionals who had been trained and were at home.
“We cannot absorb all the 100,000 people in our health system to get spaces, but of course, there are spaces that have also not been filled. The problem has to do with fiscal space. In every budget, we will only employ what we can pay.”
He pointed to financial challenges as the main cause of the situation. He noted that although many communities, especially rural and underserved areas, need more health workers, limited government funds make it difficult to recruit them.
The high number of unemployed professionals has also pushed many to look for jobs outside the country. Doctors, nurses, and other health workers continue to travel abroad in search of better opportunities.
This trend, often called “brain drain,” raises concerns about the future of healthcare in Ghana, especially if skilled workers keep leaving in large numbers.
