Key points
- Stakeholders at the maiden National Caregiver Summit called for increased investment to transform Nigeria’s largely informal care sector.
- Caring Africa CEO Blessing Adesiyan noted that Nigeria loses about one per cent of its GDP annually due to childcare constraints.
- Unpaid care work in the country is valued at over 111 billion dollars yearly, with women bearing the bulk of the domestic responsibilities.
- Formalizing the care workforce across childcare, eldercare, and disability care could generate an estimated 17 million jobs.
- Experts emphasized that the country currently lacks a national care policy, standardized childcare systems, and coordinated financing mechanisms.
Main Story
Stakeholders have called for increased investment in Nigeria’s caregiver services, describing the sector as a critical driver of jobs, inclusive growth and social development.
They made the call at the maiden National Caregiver Summit on Monday in Abuja as part of activities marking the 2026 National Children’s Day.
The event was organised by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in collaboration with Etiquette Africa Initiative to deliberate on inclusive family and social development policies.
The report indicated that Nigeria’s care economy remains severely underfunded and structural constraints keep more than three million women out of formal employment.
Presenting a paper titled “Nigeria’s Care Sector: Realities and Possibilities,” industry experts noted that millions of nannies, housekeepers, and support workers currently operate without legal protection, regulatory oversight, or decent wages.
To remedy this, stakeholders urged policymakers and private financiers to treat care work as essential national infrastructure and prioritize professional certifications alongside public-private financing models.
The Issues
- The absence of structured childcare systems restricts millions of women to unpaid domestic roles, lowering national labor force participation and productivity.
- A massive workforce of domestic caregivers and support staff operates completely within an unregulated market without labor protections or standardized wages.
- The lack of an established national care policy or disability framework prevents the mobilization of structured institutional investments into the sector.
What’s Being Said
- “If we formalise the care workforce, people can be proud to be childcare providers, ageing care providers and disability care professionals. That becomes a pathway for youth employment and economic inclusion,” stated Ms Blessing Adesiyan, Founder and CEO of Caring Africa.
- Adesiyan noted that “it also means we have millions of caregivers, nannies, housekeepers and support workers operating without protection, regulation or decent wages.”
- She added that “care directly impacts women’s labour force participation, enterprise productivity and national development outcomes.”
- “Care is not optional. It is foundational. It is the operating system of families, businesses and economies,” Adesiyan emphasized during her presentation.
What’s Next
- The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development will drive inter-agency consultations to draft the proposed care sector policy framework.
- Development partners and non-governmental organizations will design professional certification modules to standardize training for youth entering the care workforce.
- Private sector actors will look into public-private partnership models to fund structured corporate childcare facilities and eldercare delivery infrastructure.
Bottom Line With unpaid care work valued at over 111 billion dollars annually, Nigerian social stakeholders are pushing to formalize the care economy, aiming to unlock 17 million potential institutional jobs while removing the domestic constraints that lock millions of women out of the formal workforce.
