The United Kingdom approved 49,498 work visas for Nigerians between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest Home Office occupation visa statistics.
According to The Punch, the data showed that health and care professionals accounted for the overwhelming majority of the approvals, making Nigeria the second-largest source of UK work visa recipients globally during the period.
Official figures indicated that Nigerians submitted 54,707 work visa applications over the five-year period, with 49,498 approved, translating to a grant rate of 90.5 per cent.
However, following stricter immigration rules introduced in 2024, annual approvals for Nigerians fell sharply from 28,495 in 2023 to 2,851 throughout 2025.
The figures were extracted from two UK Home Office immigration datasets covering 2021 through the first quarter of 2026.
The records provide a breakdown of work visa approvals by occupation, industry and nationality.
The data revealed that the Health and Care Worker visa route dominated Nigerian approvals, accounting for 42,893 of the 49,498 grants recorded under the SOC2010 classification.
Care workers and home carers received the largest share with 22,376 approvals. They were followed by nurses with 9,359, senior care workers with 4,267, medical practitioners with 3,377, nursing auxiliaries with 1,323, medical radiographers with 763 and physiotherapists with 699.
The Human Health and Social Work Activities sector employed 42,503 Nigerians granted work visas, representing 85.9 per cent of the total approvals.
Outside the healthcare sector, 3,398 Nigerians secured Skilled Worker visas during the period.
Among the leading non-health occupations were chartered and certified accountants with 536 approvals, programmers and software development professionals with 401, management consultants and business analysts with 321, IT business analysts, architects and systems designers with 287, and web designers and developers with 73.
The Creative Worker visa route also accounted for 1,791 approvals for Nigerians working in areas such as music, acting and entertainment.
Yearly figures showed a steady rise in approvals before the policy changes. Nigerians received 5,119 work visas in 2021, increasing to 14,084 in 2022 before reaching a peak of 28,495 in 2023, representing almost a sixfold increase within two years.
The trend reversed after new immigration restrictions were introduced. Approvals dropped to 1,800 in the first quarter of 2024.
The UK granted 769 work visas to Nigerians in the final quarter of 2024, followed by 895, 926, 593 and 437 across the four quarters of 2025, while only 395 approvals were recorded in the first quarter of 2026.
The sharp rise recorded before the decline was largely linked to the UK government’s decision in 2022 to expand the Health and Care Worker visa route, allowing care workers to help address labour shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-Brexit departure of European workers.
The report noted that Nigeria was among the three leading countries supplying migrant care workers to the UK in 2022 and 2023.
Across all nationalities, 146,000 Health and Care Worker visas were granted in 2023, making it the country’s most widely used skilled worker pathway.
Despite the high number of Nigerian applicants, the report noted that Nigeria remains on the World Health Organisation’s red list of countries experiencing severe shortages of healthcare workers.
According to the report, it meant the UK’s National Health Service trusts are officially discouraged from directly recruiting there, even as individual applicants pursued the route independently.
The fall in approvals gathered pace from late 2023 after the Home Office introduced tougher sponsorship rules, prevented care workers from bringing dependants, increased the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers from £20,960 to £23,200 and later to £38,700, while also intensifying enforcement against non-compliant care providers.
As a result, monthly Health and Care Worker visa applications fell from a peak of 18,300 in August 2023 to 2,400 by March 2024.
Separate research by Intelpoint, which analysed two decades of UK visa data, found that work visa applications from Nigerians declined by about 68 per cent in 2024, dropping from roughly 93,000 to 29,800.
Within Africa, Nigeria recorded the highest number of work visa approvals during the review period.
Zimbabwe followed with 35,242 approvals, largely driven by health and care recruitment, while Ghana recorded 20,649.
South Africa had 12,018 approvals, Kenya 6,520, Egypt 4,848, Uganda 2,480, Cameroon 2,122, Morocco 2,012 and Zambia 1,826.
Combined, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ghana accounted for 105,389 of the 144,364 work visas granted to African nationals, representing 73 per cent of the continent’s total.
Globally, the UK issued 666,442 occupation-based work visas between 2021 and the first quarter of 2024. Africans received 144,364 of those approvals, representing 21.7 per cent.
India topped the global ranking with 169,286 work visa grants, accounting for 25.4 per cent of the total, while Nigeria ranked second with 49,498 approvals, representing 7.4 per cent.
Other countries in the global top 10 included Zimbabwe with 35,242 approvals, Ukraine with 32,154, the Philippines with 29,697, Pakistan with 28,983, Ghana with 20,649, the United States with 20,407, Kyrgyzstan with 15,664 and Bangladesh with 14,531.
Introduced in 2021 as part of the Skilled Worker programme, the UK Health and Care Worker visa offers lower application fees, faster processing times and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge for eligible healthcare professionals.
According to the Home Office, by 2030, one in five UK residents will be over 65. It said this has triggered a National Health Service vacancy crisis and created a surge in the need for overseas-trained health professionals.
