100+ Zamfara Nursing Grads Left Jobless Over Accreditation Fail

More than 100 nursing and physiotherapy graduates of Zamfara State University, Talata Mafara, remain unable to sit professional examinations or complete indexing with their regulatory bodies, despite holding university degrees and, in some cases, already beginning internships.

The students, drawn from at least two graduating sets of the Nursing Science and Physiotherapy programmes, say the departments lack full accreditation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) and the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board of Nigeria (MRTB). Without that professional clearance, they cannot proceed to the mandatory professional exams required to practise.

Zamfara State University itself secured National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation for all 28 of its programmes in an exercise conducted in February 2025, with results announced in May that year. Nursing Science and Physiotherapy were among those granted full accreditation by the NUC. University officials at the time credited Governor Dauda Lawal’s administration for providing the resources that enabled the institution to meet NUC standards.

NUC accreditation, however, covers the academic quality of university programmes. Professional regulatory bodies retain separate authority over training standards, student indexing, and licensing for practice. NMCN indexing, for instance, profiles students in the Council’s database and is a prerequisite for professional examinations. Similar requirements apply under the MRTB for physiotherapy graduates.

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Affected students say only an advisory visit by the relevant professional bodies occurred around 2023, with no subsequent full accreditation. Some graduates have spent five to six months on internship while waiting for clarity. Others remain at home. “We have been moving from one place to another and visiting different ministries, trying to find a way out, but nothing seems to be working,” one student told investigators. “There is still no clear information about the situation.”

They also question why the university continued admitting new students into the programmes despite the unresolved professional accreditation gap, warning that the number of affected graduates could grow. “If the university knew that the programmes had not been accredited, why did it continue admitting more students?” another asked.

The university was established in 2018. Leadership has changed in recent years, with a former vice-chancellor moving to the state executive council and a new vice-chancellor taking office. Students say successive assurances that funds would be released to resolve the matter have not produced visible results. Some allege that any resources allocated may not have been applied to the accreditation process, though these claims remain unverified.

Efforts to obtain official comment from the Head of the Department of Nursing Science, the Vice-Chancellor and the university’s public relations officer were unsuccessful at the time of the original report.

The students are calling on the Zamfara State Government, university management, the NMCN and the MRTB to clarify the status of the two programmes, outline concrete steps toward full professional accreditation and indexing, and explain the continued intake of new students.

They stress that years of study, fees and personal investment are at risk if the professional pathway remains blocked.

The episode underscores a wider tension in Nigerian higher education: universities can meet NUC academic benchmarks while still falling short of the separate professional standards that determine whether graduates may legally practise. For the stranded Zamfara students, the distinction is no longer academic. It is the difference between a degree and a livelihood.