10 Career Opportunities for Public Health Graduates In Nigeria

Public Health


There are ample career paths for graduates with a first or second degree in Public Health or Public Health Technology. If you have been in search of the various job opportunities for public health degree holders, then look no further. This article contains the necessary information you probably need.

Also, as we progress in this subject, I'll also be answering some related questions on public health, such as the best universities offering public health, salaries of public health graduates etc. 

What can you do with a public health/technology degree?

Below here is a list and concise job description of what you can do with a public health degree. 

1. Health Administrator

One of the jobs one could get to work with as a public health graduate is as an administrator in health organisations. These particular health workers are saddled with the responsibilities of keeping in touch with various health organizations such as health equipment suppliers and so on. Their duties also involve managing and coordinating health services and provision of health programs for clients, staff etc.

2. Childbirth Health Educator

With a first or second degree in public health, one can get employed to work as a childbirth health educator. Duties of such employees involve educating pregnant women on child birth. They educate expectant mothers on all necessary things they need to do to ensure safe delivery such as the kind of food they should and not eat, hygiene etc.

3. Public Health Educator

Another responsibility of a public health educator involves creating awareness on healthy lifestyle, informing community members on what they should know about their health and their environments. Public health educators are responsible for developing workshops and lectures which can be adapted to different areas and avenues for creating awareness on health, answer questions and offer suggestions to participating members. 

4. Environmental Health Nurse

Some of the duties of environmental health nurses involve delivering clinical services to members of the community. These health workers work under the supervision and guidance of the environmental health directors. 

READ ALSO: 10 Nigerian Universities With The Highest Number of Female Students

5. Clinical Infectious Disease Specialist

Getting employed as a clinical infectious disease specialist will require you to work with patients with contagious diseases by ensuring the sickness doesn't spread further. Clinical Infectious Disease Specialists make research in order to identify a source disease. These are some duties of clinical infectious disease specialists. You need a master's degree at least to operate as a clinical Infectious disease specialist.

6. Chronic Disease Management Coordinator

The duties of chronic disease management coordinator are somewhat similar to that of a clinical infectious disease specialist. But here, the employee will work as a sectional coordinator or leader of the health care provider team in search of patients with a chronic illness. You're required to gain some years of experience before you can be employed as a coordinator of such a team. 

7. Communicable Disease Analyst

A communicable disease analyst is saddled with the responsibility of examining the cause and source of a viral or emerging disease. As a health worker employed in this field, you're also responsible for advising as well as educating people on how diseases and illnesses spread. Such health workers publish guidelines on how to avoid contracting such diseases.

8. Health and safety engineer

Some of the tasks of a health and safety engineer involves checking plans for new machinery or equipment in order to make sure they attained safety requirements for the usages of the users. 

Other responsibilities of safety and health engineers are identifying potential hazards in machinery and facilities, providing precautions for the users or operators, and verifying employees safety programmes.

9. Correctional Medicine Physician

Public health graduates are employed in prisons to carry out some medical services or suggestions needed by prisoners and other people within the correctional system.

10. Hazardous Waste Supervisor

Public health degree holders can be employed to inspect and ensure wastes are properly disposed of. Their duties involve inspecting the community, creating awareness to ensure that harmful waste is not left within the residential areas but are disposed of properly.

Alright, you have just read some career paths of public health degree holders. So if you intend on studying public health and wondering where you could work after you graduate, the above information may propel you to forge ahead in this field. 

How much do public health workers earn in Nigeria?

Like I said earlier, I'll be using this privilege to respond to some frequently asked questions relating to public health. One of them is the monthly salaries of public health employees. The salaries of public health graduates depend on various factors.

Public health workers earn around N180,000 - N350,000 monthly. Earnings of public health workers differ depending on various factors such as working experience, qualification, location among others.

Public Health Courses In Nigeria

If you've been doing research on public health courses in Nigeria, look no further because I've compiled a list of public health courses you can offer in Nigeria. l found out that a lot of people have been on the web in search of public health courses, hence the need for me to put these down.

• Epidemiology Surveillance

This involves systematic collection, analysis, as well as interpretation of health data which are important to the implementation, evaluation and planning of public health practice

• Community or Family and Reproductive Health

This entails the study in relation to family and reproductive health of humans.

Others includes

• Health management and Informatics

• Public Health Information, Education and Communication

• International Public Health Management etc. 

Best Universities to study Public Health in Nigeria

In Nigeria, a few Universities have been ranked best in this subject. These universities boast of one of the most College/faculty/department of public health with standard laboratories, uninterrupted academic calendars, updated science libraries, adequate and qualified teaching and non teaching staff.

However, without much ado, here are the top 5 public universities to get a degree in public health/technology. You can see the full list here which also includes private universities.


1. Imo State University

2. Abia State University

3. Bauchi State University

4. University of Calabar

5. Zamfara State University

BY STUDENTS MIRROR NG