The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has repositioned Nigeria’s care economy as a strategic catalyst for inclusive growth, social protection and national development.
Speaking at the 2026 National Caregivers Summit commemorating National Children’s Day in Abuja, the minister, while unveiling a policy-driven framework aimed at strengthening families, protecting vulnerable groups and expanding economic opportunities through structured caregiving systems across Nigeria, said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was advancing a people-centred governance model under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
According to her, the Renewed Hope Social Impact Intervention Programme was designed to ensure that social protection and human capital interventions reach all 774 local government areas across the country.
“This marks a historic transition from viewing social development as charity to recognising it as a national economic imperative,” she stated.
The minister said President Tinubu’s declaration of 2026 as the “Year of Families and Social Development” reflected government recognition of the family as “the first school of values, the first line of security, and the foundational economic unit of society.”
“If we secure the home, we secure the future of Nigeria,” she said.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim disclosed that the ministry had embarked on institutional reforms focused on strengthening child protection systems and expanding social inclusion mechanisms nationwide.
She noted that efforts had been intensified toward “the full domestication and enforcement of the Child Rights Act across the Federation,” alongside stronger implementation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act.
The minister further stated that National Costed Action Plans targeting violence against children, child marriage and exploitation against women and girls were already being implemented with measurable targets, clear timelines, and sustainable financing mechanisms.
To improve planning and response systems, she said the ministry was collaborating with relevant agencies to leverage the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure to digitise social development data and track vulnerabilities in real time.
“We are leveraging the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) to digitise social development data, enabling real-time tracking of educational gaps, vulnerabilities, and exclusion indicators so that no Nigerian child or vulnerable household remains invisible within our development architecture,” she said.
Highlighting demographic pressures on national care systems, the minister said Nigeria’s rapidly growing youth and elderly populations required urgent investment in social infrastructure.
“Over 6.5 million Nigerians are now aged 65 years and above,” she noted, adding that women and girls continued to bear the disproportionate burden of unpaid caregiving responsibilities. No nation can attain sustainable prosperity when a significant segment of its productive population is constrained by invisible and unsupported care responsibilities,” she said.
The minister said the government was now formally recognising caregiving “not as an invisible domestic obligation, but as a vital professional sector deserving of structure, standards, investment, and dignity.”
Through partnerships with stakeholders including the Caregiver Nigeria Society, she said the ministry was scaling up nationwide training and certification programmes to professionalise caregiving services.
“Our vision is to empower thousands of Nigerian youths with employable and globally relevant skills in childcare, geriatric care, special needs support, and community caregiving services. By formalising the care sector, we are simultaneously creating pathways for sustainable employment while enabling more women to actively participate in the economy.”
The minister also highlighted ongoing collaboration with the World Bank under the AGILE Project to expand educational access and digital literacy for more than 8.6 million girls across 18 states.
“This initiative is not merely about education; it is about breaking cycles of poverty, promoting inclusion, and preparing Nigerian girls to become leaders, innovators, and contributors to national development in the digital age,” she said.
She further disclosed that the ministry was at an advanced stage of establishing dedicated institutional departments for the Care Economy and Women’s Climate Resilience and Adaptation in collaboration with the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Humanitarian Affairs.
Chief Executive Officer of Caring in Africa, Blessing Adesinyo, described the care economy as critical to workforce participation and economic growth.
“Care as infrastructure: a national imperative for growth,” she said.
Adesinyo, citing UN Women data, noted that unpaid care work globally, largely carried out by women, was valued at 11.7 trillion dollars.
“To do the maths, that is about 10 countries, the GDP of this country that women provide for free.”
She pointed out that Nigeria is at a demographic and economic inflexion point and is projected to become the world’s third most populous country, after India and China.
“Every year, we add close to 10 million babies to our country. And for those 10 million, we do not have any kind of structure for how they will actually feed, educate, and add value to our economy. Every year, Nigeria continues to grow because we have 10 million people.”
The UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, said caregiving systems were essential for women’s participation in politics, careers and economic life.
“For a young woman who wants to get into a career, who wants to get into the economic space, who wants to get into political participation and representation, they need care,” she said.
Eyong pledged continued technical support from UN Women toward advancing Nigeria’s care economy agenda.
Representing UNICEF Nigeria Country Director, Godwin Chinedu Odo reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to supporting care reforms and child protection systems in partnership with the ministry.
Odo said UNICEF had supported the development of alternative care guidelines and implementation strategies currently guiding care service provision in Nigeria.
“At UNICEF we believe that the home is the best place for a child. We encourage that children should be at home with their loved ones, and alternative care service provision should only be as a last resort,” he said.
The wife of the Minister of Defence, Oghogho Musa, described the summit as the right step to begin with, coming at the right time.
“I want to congratulate the Honourable Minister for bringing this on board because it’s really a big economy, and so we are urging all of you to be part of this movement,” she said.
The summit also featured the unveiling of the six-part book series, The Etiquette Adventure, authored by Etienying Akpan Usong of the Etiquette Africa Initiative.
Stakeholders, while commending the move, urged urgent implementation of reforms to strengthen families, protect children and unlock economic opportunities.
