The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Abubakar Labaran, disclosed this at the 66th Annual Scientific Conference and 67th Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy held in Kano.
Labaran lamented the absence of specialists in speech rehabilitation, noting that patients requiring such services often have to seek treatment outside the state or arrange for specialists from other locations to visit Kano.
“We realised that we don’t have a single speech physiotherapist in Kano and perhaps in the entire North. We either have to bring a specialist from Ibadan or travel there,” he said.
He added that the state government had resolved to sponsor physiotherapists for specialised training to ensure that the services become readily available to residents.
The commissioner also disclosed that the government had expanded physiotherapy units in four hospitals across the state in recognition of the profession’s contribution to healthcare delivery.
He further revealed that plans were underway to establish a centre of excellence in physiotherapy at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital in Kano.
The conference focused on advocacy and policy engagement aimed at strengthening the integration of physiotherapy into Nigeria’s public healthcare system. Participants also examined rehabilitation needs at different stages of life, including disabilities resulting from non-communicable diseases, injuries and infectious diseases.
Speaking at the event, the Registrar of the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board of Nigeria, Professor Rufai Ahmed, stressed the importance of training healthcare professionals in specialised areas where services remain unavailable.
Ahmed, who represented the Minister of State for Health, Dr Isaac Salako, said the board would deploy a team to support state-owned hospitals in obtaining the necessary accreditation for physiotherapy services.
He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s support for the profession and called for stronger training institutions to improve service delivery despite existing challenges.
Similarly, the President of the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy, Dr Felix Oyinlola Odusanya, said the conference demonstrated the association’s renewed commitment to advancing the profession and expanding its role in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
Odusanya disclosed that the association was awaiting approval of a national rehabilitation policy and the release of the Doctor of Physiotherapy scheme of service for the health sector.
He put the number of physiotherapy training institutions in Nigeria at 60 and noted that the National Universities Commission had recently approved a five-year Doctor of Physiotherapy degree programme.
In his remarks, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Umar Faruk, described the conference as an important platform for discussing strategies to reduce disability and alleviate pain.
He emphasised that physiotherapy should be recognised as an essential component of comprehensive healthcare, particularly in the treatment and rehabilitation of accident victims, older persons and people living with disabilities.
Also speaking, Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo, who attended the event in a wheelchair, shared his rehabilitation experience following surgery in Germany.
He said the treatment had helped him regain the ability to stand and move without assistance.
Meanwhile, guest speaker Dr Felix Abraham Obi raised concerns over the limited representation of physiotherapists in healthcare leadership and policy-making positions.
Obi argued that despite Nigeria’s investment in training physiotherapy professionals, the healthcare system had failed to adequately integrate them into key leadership structures where they could contribute to policy formulation and decision-making.
He specifically noted that no physiotherapist was serving as a director in the Federal Ministry of Health or at the state government level.
