Nigerian mental health challenges:

• Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people.

• Nigeria has only 200 psychiatrists, 319 registered clinical psychologists and just 1000 trained mental health nurses. Similarly mental health counsellors and therapists are in serious short supply.

• Recent WHO mental health statistics estimate that 20% of Nigerians are affected by mental health illness, with 4.9 million having anxiety disorders and 7 million experiencing depressive disorders.

• Nigeria now has one of the highest rates of suicide and depression in Africa, the current rate of suicide in Nigeria is 9.50% out of 100, 000 people.

• The Nigerian Government budget allocation to the health sector is 5.75% (2023) considerably less than the commitment made by African leaders under the Abuja declaration to allocate 15% of their annual spending to health.

• Less than 4% of the health budget is dedicated to mental health and out of that low figure 90% goes to supporting the few neuropsychiatric hospitals in Nigeria.

• Mental health service provision at the primary health care level is virtually nonexistent.

We train Primary Health Care workers to be able to be the first point of contact to people experiencing mental health issues and illnesses.

We are training specialist medical staff in General/Community Hospitals to be able to train their colleagues, enabling them to respond to patients experiencing mental health issues and illnesses.

Working with teachers, school staff, staff of institutes of higher learning to introduce Lay Counselling and Emotional well-being services in schools and other education establishments in the country.

ILERA is especially keen to pilot the use the WHO mhGAP training materials and work with Nigerian health professionals living in the Diaspora.

For more information about how you can help ILERA’s mental health work in Nigeria, contact ILERA’s Mental Health Lead:
Yomi Oloko via email: yomi@ilerachi.org