By Kingsley Samuel
The National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, NPMCN, will graduate 537 medical and dental specialists at its 2026 convocation ceremony on Thursday, September 17, as the institution moves to strengthen Nigeria’s pool of specialist healthcare professionals.
President of the College, Prof. Anthony Ikefuna, disclosed this at a press conference heralding the convocation, saying the ceremony would celebrate years of rigorous postgraduate training and the resilience of resident doctors who combine specialist training with frontline healthcare delivery.
Ikefuna said the new specialists had undergone training designed to equip them to respond to Nigeria’s peculiar health, socioeconomic and epidemiological challenges.
He said: “This convocation ceremony is an opportunity to celebrate another year of successful postgraduate training, appreciate our trainers as well as our supervising ministry, in addition to the conferment of degrees on deserving Fellows.
“It is an opportunity to honour hard work, appreciate our trainees for their resilience in journeying through the programme, as well as value the medical training processes in the country.”
According to him, the College places emphasis on producing specialists whose knowledge and skills respond directly to the country’s healthcare needs.
“Our curricula align training with local and national developmental challenges and ensure that our new graduates are specialists who are equipped to handle the specific socioeconomic and epidemiological realities confronting their practice,” Ikefuna said.
He noted that postgraduate medical training comes with significant demands on resident doctors, who must simultaneously acquire specialist skills and provide healthcare services to Nigerians.
“Our postgraduate students are resident doctors who face the dual pressure of balancing full-time specialist training with frontline healthcare delivery in the country,” he said.
Established in 1979, NPMCN is a Federal Government-backed tertiary institution responsible for postgraduate medical and dental education, including training, assessment and certification of doctors as specialists and consultants.
Ikefuna explained that the College provides resident doctors with structured training through guided curricula, faculty supervision, research, examinations and regular accreditation of hospitals used as residency training centres.
He said: “Our core functions include organising academic and professional postgraduate training programmes, developing curricula in the various specialties of Medicine and Dentistry, and mounting update courses across the various medical and dental faculties.”
He added: “We conduct academic and professional postgraduate examinations to certify qualified candidates as medical and dental specialists and consultants.”
According to him, the institution also accredits and indexes hospitals considered suitable for residency training while regularly reviewing the centres to maintain the quality of specialist medical education.
“We ensure quality assurance of our examinations and training processes to meet global standards,” he said.
Ikefuna said the College currently operates across major specialties in Medicine and Dentistry, including Anaesthesia, Dental Surgery, Family Medicine, Family Dentistry, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Psychiatry, Orthopaedics and Public Health and Community Medicine.
He identified Radiation and Clinical Oncology as the College’s newest faculty, focusing on cancer treatment through the use of ionising radiation and medications while limiting damage to healthy tissues.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Ikefuna said Doctor of Medicine degrees and Fellowships of the College in various specialties would be conferred on successful candidates, while some graduates would receive post-Fellowship Diplomas.
He also disclosed that four Senior Fellows who had distinguished themselves through landmark contributions to medical practice, education, administration and the development of the College would be conferred with Distinguished Fellowship.
Ikefuna said beyond celebrating the 537 graduating specialists, the convocation would help connect new Fellows with the wider alumni community and encourage resident doctors still undergoing training.
“This convocation will initiate the process of connecting our graduates or Fellows with the bigger alumni body as well as motivate our residents to ensure that their academic targets are accomplished,” he said.
“As an institution, this convocation strengthens our resolve to discharge our functions in postgraduate medical education in line with our mandate.”
