{"id":5918,"date":"2026-05-19T10:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stakebridgeirpr.com\/media\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:58:32","slug":"fg-pushes-care-economy-formalisation-for-jobs-social-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stakebridgeirpr.com\/media\/fg-pushes-care-economy-formalisation-for-jobs-social-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"FG Pushes Care Economy Formalisation For Jobs, Social Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Yemisi<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The federal government, through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, signalled a policy shift towards formalising the country\u2019s care economy at the recent National Caregivers Summit 2026 in Abuja, held during National Children\u2019s Day activities. Honourable Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, said that government was repositioning caregiving from informal, unpaid labour into a professionalised sector anchored on standards, certification, institutional frameworks and investment pathways.<\/p>\n

Sulaiman-Ibrahim disclosed that government was leveraging the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure to digitalise social development data for real-time tracking of vulnerabilities, exclusion indicators and education gaps. She linked the policy direction to Nigeria\u2019s demographic pressures, including a growing youth population, rising elderly care demand, gender-based violence risks and persistent child marriage concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe formalisation of the care economy would create employment opportunities for young Nigerians, particularly in childcare, special needs support and community caregiving services,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

Chief Executive Officer of Caring Africa, Blessing Adesiyan, argued that Nigeria currently lacks \u201ca national care policy and standardised childcare systems\u201d, alongside weak eldercare, disability support and workforce pathways.<\/p>\n

United Nations Women Representative to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States, Beatrice Eyong, framed the care economy as foundational to women\u2019s economic and political participation. \u201cWomen need care and support systems to help them succeed in the roles they are expected to play,\u201d Eyong said.<\/p>\n

DECISION HIGHLIGHT<\/strong>
\nThe federal government is attempting to elevate caregiving into a recognised economic sector tied to employment generation, social infrastructure and human capital policy. The approach combines workforce certification, institutional coordination and social data infrastructure.<\/p>\n

DECISION MEMO <\/strong>
\nThe summit signals that Abuja is beginning to interpret caregiving less as a welfare issue and more as an economic productivity variable. The policy framing matters. Nigeria\u2019s labour market continues to absorb millions of young entrants annually with limited formal-sector expansion, while unpaid domestic and community care work remains structurally invisible within national economic accounting.<\/p>\n

Formalising care services potentially creates a labour-intensive employment corridor requiring comparatively lower capital intensity than manufacturing or large-scale infrastructure sectors. Childcare, elderly care, disability support and community caregiving collectively represent decentralised service markets capable of absorbing semi-skilled and vocational labour if regulatory systems emerge.<\/p>\n

However, the government\u2019s emphasis on certification and institutionalisation also reveals a recognition that the sector\u2019s fragmentation currently limits scalability, investment credibility and wage formalisation. Without national standards, care work remains largely informal, weakly remunerated and excluded from policy financing structures.<\/p>\n

The use of the Nigerian Education Data Infrastructure introduces another layer. By linking social vulnerabilities to digital data systems, government appears to be constructing a more targeted social protection architecture capable of identifying households requiring interventions. This creates future possibilities for conditional support programmes, labour matching and localised care service deployment.<\/p>\n

Yet the summit also exposed structural gaps. Adesiyan\u2019s intervention highlighted the absence of a national care policy, weak childcare systems and minimal care infrastructure investment. That suggests the current initiative remains largely agenda-setting rather than execution-stage reform.<\/p>\n

The broader macroeconomic implication is that the care economy is increasingly being framed globally as productive infrastructure rather than recurrent welfare expenditure. Nigeria\u2019s adoption of that language indicates policy convergence with international social investment models promoted by multilateral institutions and gender-focused development agencies.<\/p>\n

DATA BOX<\/strong><\/p>\n