How lucrative is Radiography in Nigeria?
Radiography is a subtly lucrative course in Nigeria in other words it is like ‘an untapped gold mine’. This is because most people are unaware of this important aspect if the health care providing team. Without radiographers, medical imaging would be nearly impossible and diagnosis would be difficult! Imagine if you fractured your arm and there was no radiographer to perform an X-ray for you, that fracture could be treated as a dislocation leading to even more problems.
While it doesn’t give you as much financial benefits/ security as professions such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing or even Radiology, it’s not so bad. Radiography is the art and science of using radiation to produce images of the tissues, organs, bones and vessels that the human body is comprised of. It is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing and non ionizing radiation to view the internal form of the body.
One of the keys to being a lucrative profession is Relevance. Radiographers are specialists who are trained to take different clear images of parts of the body using radiation (due to difference is densities of different parts of the body) and special equipments and techniques. Radiography is a very relevant sector of Healthcare therefore it has to be lucrative as well.
There are thousands of hospitals in Nigeria; Federal, State and private hospitals, even in private clinical laboratories and in all these institutions, a Radiographer is needed in order to operate x-ray machines, CTI’s, Mamographers and so on. This makes Radiography as well sought after skill in Nigeria.
To become a Radiographer, you will need to complete a bachelor’s degree in Radiography (Medical imaging/radiation) which takes about four years in a university plus one year of clinical experience. Radiography is a lucrative course which also enjoys a high employment rate and high demand due to the scarcity of qualified Radiographers in the country, they also enjoy a lot of monetary allowance due to the somewhat dangerous nature of the job as they are exposed to ionizing radiation no matter how little and the safety precautions.
On average, a Radiographer earns between 120,000 naira to 160,000 naira per month for a start in a federal setting and about 75,000 naira to 110,000 per month in state hospitals and private clinical laboratories. Radiography is one of the most underrated fields in the health care sector. No good healthcare setting can do without a Radiographer. It is lucrative, provides job satisfaction and security, it provides additional monetary benefits, all while involving the task of saving lives.
Olayinka Shyllon
This article is the intellectual property of www.nimedhealth.com.ng
Image Credit; google
