The Nanny Academy, a caregiver training and placement institution in Nigeria, has called for better wages, stronger social protection and greater professional recognition for care workers, warning that the people providing essential care remain largely undervalued.
The academy made the call to mark the International Day of Care and Support, observed on 29 October, under the theme, ‘Building sustainable care and support systems through decent work’.
It urged the government, employers, families and development partners to recognise care work as skilled employment deserving fair remuneration, safe working conditions and access to health insurance.
Care work supports families and the wider economy by enabling parents to work, providing assistance to older people and ensuring that children receive the attention needed for healthy development.
However, much of the work in Nigeria remains informal, leaving many caregivers without adequate employment protection or recognition of their professional skills.
Amara Agbim, founder and chief executive officer of The Nanny Academy, said the institution had spent 16 years promoting the professionalisation of care work.
‘We have spent 16 years insisting that care is skilled work,’ she said.
‘A job is not decent just because it pays something. It has to be enough, stable and safe. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and the one we are asking the whole sector to adopt.’
Founded in 2010, the academy said it had trained and placed more than 20,000 caregivers, with approximately 1,000 women trained annually and a placement rate of 90 per cent.
According to the institution, its placement system includes written employment terms, payment through commercial bank accounts rather than cash, and health maintenance organisation (HMO) insurance coverage.
The academy also said it treated Nigeria’s national minimum wage of ?70,000 as a minimum benchmark for care workers while encouraging employers to offer better remuneration where possible.
It argued that professional training and recognised qualifications were important to moving caregivers from informal employment into more structured work.
Its programmes are accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the Qualifications and Vocational Skills Education (QVSE) framework, while its training includes National Skills Qualification (NSQ) certification.
Through CareFrontier, its newsletter on the care economy, the academy also advocates improved pay and working conditions for caregivers.
Its 2026 Salary and Wages Survey, currently underway, is expected to provide further information on remuneration in the sector.
Ms Agbim said care work was frequently described as domestic help rather than a profession, despite the skills and responsibilities involved.
‘We don’t want househelps, we want professionals,’ she said, describing the position that has guided the academy’s work.
The institution is also a member of the Nigerian Care Coalition and said it had worked with Caring Africa to develop a draft national care policy framework for discussion.
Care workers seek a voice in policymaking
Beyond wages and employment protection, the academy said frontline caregivers should have a greater role in shaping policies affecting childcare, eldercare and women’s economic participation.
It cited the participation of Comfort, a governess trained by the institution, in a national panel on delivering early childhood development at the last mile during GS-26 in Abuja in September.
Comfort joined government and development-sector representatives to discuss early childhood development, drawing on her practical experience caring for young children in the home.
The academy said her participation demonstrated the value of allowing people directly involved in care delivery to contribute to policy discussions.
‘When a caregiver can sit on a national panel and speak from her own experience, it says what training and recognition make possible,’ Ms Agbim said.
‘Decent work does not stop at the pay slip. It includes having a voice.’
The academy called on policymakers, development partners and private-sector organisations to involve home-based caregivers, creche operators and other frontline workers in consultations on early childhood development, eldercare and women’s economic participation.
It also urged the government and employers to establish and publish wage and working-condition benchmarks for different care roles, arguing that clear standards would help workers and families negotiate employment terms more effectively.
Other recommendations include extending social protection, particularly health insurance, to caregivers employed by families, agencies and institutions, as well as recognising care work in public policy and procurement decisions.
Ms Agbim said building a sustainable care economy required attention to the welfare of the people delivering these services.
‘Care is the future. It cannot be automated,’ she said.
‘If we want a care economy that is sustainable, the people at the centre of it have to be able to build a decent life from it.’
The academy operates centres in Lagos and Abuja, training nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for placement with families and institutions.