UK granted 49,498 work visas to Nigerians between 2021 and 2026

Health and care workers dominate as Nigeria ranks second globally for UK work visas

The United Kingdom issued 49,498 work visas to Nigerian nationals between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026, according to newly released Home Office occupation visa data.

The figures, drawn from two immigration datasets covering the five-year period, show that Nigerian healthcare workers received the majority of grants, making Nigeria the second-highest recipient of UK work visas globally.

Healthcare sector accounts for 86% of Nigerian work visas

The Health and Care Worker visa route dominated Nigeria’s work visa outlook, accounting for 42,893 of the 49,498 grants. Within this category:

· Care workers and home carers: 22,376 grants

· Nurses: 9,359 grants

· Senior care workers: 4,267 grants

· Medical practitioners: 3,377 grants

· Nursing auxiliaries: 1,323 grants

· Medical radiographers: 763 grants

· Physiotherapists: 699 grants

The Human Health and Social Work Activities industry absorbed 42,503 of Nigeria’s total work visa grants, representing 85.9 per cent of all approvals.

Outside the healthcare sector, Nigeria’s Skilled Worker visa grants totalled 3,398 across the period. The top non-health occupations included:

· Chartered and certified accountants: 536 grants

· Programmers and software development professionals: 401 grants

· Management consultants and business analysts: 321 grants

· IT business analysts, architects and systems designers: 287 grants

· Web designers and developers: 73 grants

The Creative Worker route, covering musicians, actors, and entertainers, contributed an additional 1,791 grants.

Year-on-year data reveals a dramatic rise and fall in Nigerian work visa grants:

· 2021: 5,119 grants

· 2022: 14,084 grants

· 2023: 28,495 grants (nearly six-fold increase over two years)

· 2024: Sharp decline began in Q1 with just 1,800 grants

· Q4 2024: 769 grants

· 2025: 895, 926, 593, and 437 across four quarters

· Q1 2026: 395 grants

The initial surge was driven by the UK government’s 2022 expansion of the Health and Care Worker visa, which opened the route to care workers to address acute vacancies created by the COVID-19 pandemic and post-Brexit loss of European labour.

The decline in visa grants began in late 2023 and accelerated in 2024 when the Home Office:

· Tightened sponsorship requirements

· Barred care workers from bringing dependants to the UK

· Raised the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers from £20,960 to £23,200, and later to £38,700

· Enforced compliance action against rogue care sector employers

Health and Care Worker visa applications, which had peaked at 18,300 per month in August 2023, fell to 2,400 by March 2024. Nigeria’s work visa applications dropped by approximately 68 per cent in 2024, falling from around 93,000 to 29,800, according to research firm Intelpoint’s 20-year analysis of UK visa data.

Among African nationalities, Nigeria led the work visa category across the period:

1. Nigeria: 49,498 grants

2. Zimbabwe: 35,242 grants

3. Ghana: 20,649 grants

4. South Africa: 12,018 grants

5. Kenya: 6,520 grants

Together, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana accounted for 105,389 of the 144,364 total work visa grants issued to Africans, representing 73 per cent of the continental total.

Globally, the UK issued 666,442 occupation-based work visa grants from 2021 to Q1 2024, of which 144,364 were granted to Africa (21.7 per cent).

The global top ten recipients included:

1. India: 169,286 grants (25.4%)

2. Nigeria: 49,498 grants (7.4%)

3. Zimbabwe: 35,242 grants

4. Ukraine: 32,154 grants

5. Philippines: 29,697 grants

6. Pakistan: 28,983 grants

7. Ghana: 20,649 grants

8. United States: 20,407 grants

9. Kyrgyzstan: 15,664 grants

10. Bangladesh: 14,531 grants

Despite the high number of Nigerian healthcare workers migrating to the UK, Nigeria remains on the World Health Organisation’s red list of countries facing critical health worker shortages. This designation means UK’s National Health Service trusts are officially discouraged from directly recruiting there, though individual applicants have continued to pursue the route independently.

The UK’s Health and Care Worker visa route, introduced as a subsection of the Skilled Worker route in 2021, offers reduced visa fees, faster processing, and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge for qualifying medical and care professionals.

According to the Home Office, by 2030, one in five UK residents will be over 65, creating a National Health Service vacancy crisis that has driven a surge in demand for overseas-trained health professionals.

About The Author

Dele Fashomi

Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.

Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.

He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.

Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).

He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.

He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.

Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.

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