Housemanship in Nigeria: How Internship Placement and Pay Work

What housemanship is and why you need it

Housemanship is a mandatory one-year internship every MBBS graduate completes before practicing medicine independently in Nigeria. You cannot start until the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) grants you provisional registration, which it issues once your medical school confirms you passed final professional exams. Provisional registration lets you practice under supervision inside an accredited hospital, but you cannot set up independent practice or work outside that supervised setting until you complete the year and register fully.

Applying for a housemanship post

There is no single national portal that places every graduate the way JAMB places university applicants. You apply directly to teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, and other MDCN-accredited hospitals, and each institution manages its own intake against a fixed quota of house officer slots. Because slots are limited relative to the number of graduates each year, waiting periods after graduation are common, and many students apply to several hospitals at once to improve their chances. Your own college of medicine and its affiliated teaching hospital, such as University College Hospital for University of Ibadan graduates or Lagos University Teaching Hospital for University of Lagos graduates, are usually the first ports of call, but graduates also apply to state and private hospitals with accredited housemanship programs.

The four core rotations

A standard housemanship year rotates you through the four major clinical specialties: internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics. Hospitals typically split the year into four postings of about 3 months each, though the exact order and length varies by institution. Within each posting you work as part of a clinical team under a consultant, clerking patients, assisting in procedures, writing notes, and taking calls. Your performance in each posting is assessed and recorded, and these assessments feed into your application for full registration afterward.

CONMESS pay for house officers

House officers are paid under the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), the pay scale that covers doctors in Nigeria's public health service. Reported figures put house officer base pay at roughly ₦263,000 to ₦267,000 a month before hazard and call duty allowances, while some sources describe a standard housemanship portal salary closer to ₦306,000, according to reported 2025 figures and a CONMESS salary breakdown . Pay varies by hospital ownership and location, with federal teaching hospitals, state hospitals, and private facilities each setting slightly different totals once allowances are added, and some Lagos state hospitals reportedly pay above ₦370,000 a month with full allowances included. Confirm the exact figure with your specific hospital's HR office before you accept a posting, since CONMESS reviews and state-level top-ups change these numbers over time.

After housemanship: NYSC and full registration

Once you complete your four rotations and your supervising consultants sign off on your internship assessment forms, you apply to MDCN for full registration. You submit your degree certificate, O-level certificate, birth certificate or declaration of age, your provisional registration certificate, and the completed internship assessment forms. Full registration is what lets you practice medicine on your own and apply for a practicing licence. Most Nigerian medical graduates also serve the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posting after housemanship, often to an underserved state, before settling into long-term practice or postgraduate training.

Preparing your application while you wait

Since there is no centralized match, treat your housemanship search like a job application round rather than a single form submission. Prepare your curriculum vitae, provisional registration certificate, transcripts, and reference letters from your final-year clinical supervisors ahead of graduation, so you can apply to several hospitals as soon as your provisional registration comes through. Some hospitals open applications on a rolling basis while others advertise fixed intake windows once or twice a year, so track application deadlines for each hospital on your shortlist rather than assuming a single national cycle.

What a delayed posting means for you

Because house officer slots are limited and demand from new graduates is high, a gap of several months between graduation and starting housemanship is common in Nigeria. This gap does not affect your provisional registration status, which stays valid, but it does delay your NYSC service year and your path to full registration. Use the waiting period productively, some graduates take short clinical attachments, prepare for postgraduate entrance exams, or apply to several hospitals simultaneously to reduce the wait rather than depending on one application alone.