Interventions to strengthen Nigeria’s health workforce for cancer prevention and management: A scoping review

Nigeria ranks highest for cancer burden in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an annual incidence of almost 128,000 and 80,000 deaths, with the most common types of cancer being breast, prostate, cervical, and colorectal (Ferlay et al., 2024). The availability, equitable distribution, and access to a multidisciplinary cancer workforce with an adequate skill mix, especially at the primary healthcare level, are critical to improving cancer prevention and management services and outcomes in LMICs such as Nigeria, where the burden remains high (Chukwu et al., 2023; Trapani et al., 2024). Regrettably, Nigeria’s cancer workforce faces acute shortages, maldistribution, poor infrastructure, limited investment in training and development, suboptimal welfare conditions and career advancement opportunities, and ongoing brain drain (Aju, 2018; Okolie et al., 2022; Chidebe et al., 2023). Despite increasing policy intent towards strengthening Nigeria’s cancer workforce, the scope and nature of interventions aimed at improving the capacity of the health workforce for cancer prevention and management remain unclear. Hence, this scoping review is necessary to systematically map and assess previous and existing efforts, identify gaps and opportunities, and generate policy-relevant evidence to inform and strengthen health workforce interventions for cancer prevention and control.