diff --git a/monai/data/image_reader.py b/monai/data/image_reader.py
index 303091f0d8..9c212784ca 100644
--- a/monai/data/image_reader.py
+++ b/monai/data/image_reader.py
@@ -323,14 +323,22 @@ class NibabelReader(ImageReader):
 
     Args:
         as_closest_canonical: if True, load the image as closest to canonical axis format.
+        squeeze_non_spatial_dims: if True, non-spatial singletons will be squeezed, e.g. (256,256,1,3) -> (256,256,3)
         kwargs: additional args for `nibabel.load` API. more details about available args:
             https://github.com/nipy/nibabel/blob/master/nibabel/loadsave.py
 
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, as_closest_canonical: bool = False, dtype: DtypeLike = np.float32, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        as_closest_canonical: bool = False,
+        squeeze_non_spatial_dims: bool = False,
+        dtype: DtypeLike = np.float32,
+        **kwargs,
+    ):
         super().__init__()
         self.as_closest_canonical = as_closest_canonical
+        self.squeeze_non_spatial_dims = squeeze_non_spatial_dims
         self.dtype = dtype
         self.kwargs = kwargs
 
@@ -395,6 +403,10 @@ def get_data(self, img):
                 header["affine"] = self._get_affine(i)
             header["spatial_shape"] = self._get_spatial_shape(i)
             data = self._get_array_data(i)
+            if self.squeeze_non_spatial_dims:
+                for d in range(len(data.shape), len(header["spatial_shape"]), -1):
+                    if data.shape[d - 1] == 1:
+                        data = data.squeeze(axis=d - 1)
             img_array.append(data)
             header["original_channel_dim"] = "no_channel" if len(data.shape) == len(header["spatial_shape"]) else -1
             _copy_compatible_dict(header, compatible_meta)
diff --git a/tests/test_load_image.py b/tests/test_load_image.py
index 3f78d3892d..687829dfa8 100644
--- a/tests/test_load_image.py
+++ b/tests/test_load_image.py
@@ -170,6 +170,21 @@ def test_itk_reader_multichannel(self):
             np.testing.assert_allclose(result[:, :, 1], test_image[:, :, 1].T)
             np.testing.assert_allclose(result[:, :, 2], test_image[:, :, 2].T)
 
+    def test_load_nifti_multichannel(self):
+        test_image = np.random.randint(0, 256, size=(31, 64, 16, 2)).astype(np.float32)
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tempdir:
+            filename = os.path.join(tempdir, "test_image.nii.gz")
+            itk_np_view = itk.image_view_from_array(test_image, is_vector=True)
+            itk.imwrite(itk_np_view, filename)
+
+            itk_img, itk_header = LoadImage(reader=ITKReader())(Path(filename))
+            self.assertTupleEqual(tuple(itk_header["spatial_shape"]), (16, 64, 31))
+            self.assertTupleEqual(tuple(itk_img.shape), (16, 64, 31, 2))
+
+            nib_image, nib_header = LoadImage(reader=NibabelReader(squeeze_non_spatial_dims=True))(Path(filename))
+            self.assertTupleEqual(tuple(nib_header["spatial_shape"]), (16, 64, 31))
+            self.assertTupleEqual(tuple(nib_image.shape), (16, 64, 31, 2))
+
     def test_load_png(self):
         spatial_size = (256, 224)
         test_image = np.random.randint(0, 256, size=spatial_size)