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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

49,498 Nigerian workers got UK work visas in five years — Report

From The Punch · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Documents & data Outcome reported
  • Nigerian citizens received nearly 50,000 UK work visas between 2021 and early 2026, primarily for health and care roles.
  • This figure made Nigerians the second-largest nationality granted UK work visas during the period, with a high approval rate before policy changes in 2024.
  • The UK tightened its immigration policies in 2024, significantly reducing the number of work visas granted to Nigerians in subsequent years.

Between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026, the United Kingdom issued 49,498 work visas to Nigerian citizens, making them the second-largest group of recipients worldwide. The majority of these visas were for roles in the health and care sectors, underscoring a significant migration trend driven by labor demands in the UK.

The dominant grants went to the Nigerian health and care workers, and it is the second-highest total of any nationality granted UK work visas in the world.

— Sunday PUNCH reportDescribing the primary recipients and scale of UK work visas granted to Nigerians.

During this period, Nigerians submitted 54,707 work visa applications, achieving an impressive 90.5% grant rate. The Health and Care Worker visa was the dominant pathway, accounting for 42,893 grants. Within this category, care workers and home carers received the most visas (22,376), followed by nurses and medical practitioners.

However, the landscape shifted dramatically in 2024 when the UK implemented stricter immigration policies. This led to a sharp decline in annual work visa grants for Nigerians, dropping from a peak of 28,495 in 2023 to just 2,851 for the entirety of 2025. The data reflects this policy change, with only 1,800 visas granted in the first quarter of 2024 alone.

Nigerians submitted 54,707 work visa applications across the period, with a grant rate of 90.5 per cent, before the UK tightened its policy in 2024.

— Sunday PUNCH reportDetailing the application and approval rates before policy changes.

The earlier surge in visas was largely attributed to the UK's 2022 expansion of the Health and Care Worker visa, a move aimed at addressing critical labor shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and post-Brexit workforce changes. Nigeria emerged as a key source country for these essential workers, highlighting the interconnectedness of global labor markets and the impact of policy decisions on migration flows.

The earlier 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.

— Sunday PUNCH reportExplaining the reasons behind the increased visa grants in earlier years.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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