NMA, Harley & Wall Partner to Launch National Leadership Programme to Transform Nigeria’s Healthcare Workforce

Esther Oluku

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has signed a landmark memorandum of understanding with Harley & Wall Business and Healthcare Consulting and its sister organisation, D’BusinessDoctor Mentorship Academy, to launch a nationwide Healthcare Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Management Programme (H-LEMP).

The partnership, which had previously run for seven to eight years at the Lagos State level, has now been expanded into a national capacity-building initiative for doctors across all 36 states and the FCT, marking one of the most ambitious professional development commitments ever undertaken by the NMA and in the healthcare sector.

The deal signed by the NMA President, Prof Bala Audu and NMA’s First National Vice President, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu, signals a bold new era for the industry with the Managing Consultant at Harley & Wall Business and Healthcare Consulting and founder of D’BusinessDoctor Mentorship Academy, Dr. Ademolu Owoyele, describing the initiative as a “historic shift in how Nigerian doctors and healthcare workers are prepared for the realities of modern healthcare.”

At the centre of the collaboration is the need to integrate leadership, governance, finance, innovation and entrepreneurship into the healthcare sector equipping doctors and other healthcare practitioners with the skills to effectively lead health institutions.

Owoyele said the partnership is designed to close the leadership gap and reposition Nigerian doctors and healthcare practitioners as system leaders.

“Nigeria’s health sector cannot transform if doctors and healthcare workers are trained only as clinicians,” he said. “H-LEMP equips them to lead institutions, build sustainable practices, create jobs, and become part of the solution to our system-wide collapse rather than relegating them to just technicians in their own industry and sector.”

In his remarks, Olowojebutu explained: “Doctors who can lead successful healthcare careers and businesses in Nigeria are also less likely to leave the country. This is a strategic response to the leadership deficit and the JAPA crisis. This will develop the capacities of healthcare practitioners and empower them to lead successful businesses and institutions.”

Under the MoU, Harley & Wall Business and Healthcare Consulting will provide a blended physical-and-virtual curriculum delivered by academics, healthcare transformation leaders, entrepreneurs, management experts from Nigeria and the diaspora, while offering the programme to NMA members and other healthcare practitioners in Nigeria and diaspora at a rate subsidised by 80 per cent.

Prof. Bala Audu stated that the NMA, as custodian of the profession, will integrate the programme into its Continuous Professional Development (CPD) agenda, mobilise participation across all state chapters, and work towards broader institutional recognition at national and regulatory levels. The programme will be delivered across Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt in phased rollouts.

The initiative also carries long-term structural commitments. D’BusinessDoctor Mentorship Academy will reserve 40 slots for NMA young doctors for every cohort of its Mentorship Academy from year 2026 and this will be at no cost to the Mentees or the NMA.

Interested participants are advised to visit the company’s website; www.harleyandwallconsulting.com for registration and enrollment details in the coming days.