Nanny Academy calls for better pay, protection for Nigeria’s care workers

The Nanny Academy, a caregiver training and placement institution, has called for better wages, social protection and professional recognition for Nigeria’s care workers, urging policymakers to include them in decisions affecting the sector.The academy made the call to mark the International Day of Care and Support, observed under the theme, “Building sustainable care and support systems through decent work”.It said care work remained essential to Nigeria’s economy but was largely informal, leaving many workers without adequate pay, job security, health insurance and professional recognition.

Amara Agbim, founder and chief executive officer of The Nanny Academy, said care work should be treated as skilled employment that enables families to function, supports child development and allows older people to live with dignity.“We have spent 16 years insisting that care is skilled work,” Ms Agbim 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 Nanny Academy provides training and placement services for nannies, housekeepers and other caregivers, with centres in Lagos and Abuja.According to the institution, it has trained and placed more than 20,000 caregivers since its establishment and trains approximately 1,000 women annually, with a placement rate of 90 per cent.It said its placement practices include written employment terms, salary payments through commercial bank accounts and health maintenance organisation insurance coverage.

The academy also said it recognised the national minimum wage of N70,000 as the minimum benchmark for care workers and encouraged employers to offer better remuneration where possible.

Care workers seek greater recognition

The academy said care work was predominantly performed by women and was often described as domestic help rather than a profession requiring specialised skills.It argued that this perception contributed to poor pay, limited protection and inadequate recognition for workers whose responsibilities include childcare, household management and support for older people.

Through CareFrontier, its newsletter on the care economy, the academy said it had been advocating better employment conditions and highlighting the potential of care work to provide a sustainable livelihood.It is also conducting a 2026 Salary and Wages Survey to establish benchmarks for remuneration across the sector.

The academy said its training programmes, which it described as accredited by the National Board for Technical Education and the Qualifications and Vocational Skills Education framework, alongside National Skills Qualification-certified training, were intended to provide caregivers with recognised professional credentials.It 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 with relevant stakeholders.

Caregiver joins national policy discussion

The academy cited the participation of one of its trained caregivers, Comfort, a governess, in a national panel on delivering early childhood development at the last mile during GS-26 in Abuja in September.

Comfort participated alongside government and development-sector representatives, drawing on her practical experience caring for young children in the home.The academy said her participation demonstrated the importance of including frontline workers in discussions about policies affecting the care sector.

Ms Agbim said professional training and recognition could help caregivers contribute meaningfully to decisions about their work.“When a caregiver can sit on a national panel and speak from her own experience, it says what training and recognition make possible,” she said.“Decent work does not stop at the pay slip. It includes having a voice.”The academy urged policymakers, development partners and private-sector organisations to include home-based caregivers and crèche operators in consultations on early childhood development, eldercare and women’s economic participation.It said their practical experience could help ensure that policies reflected the realities of delivering care at the household and community levels.

Four priorities for the care economy

The academy outlined four priorities for improving conditions in the sector: recognising care work as skilled employment, establishing and publishing wage and working-condition benchmarks, extending social protection to caregivers and including frontline workers in policy discussions.It called for access to health insurance and other protections for care workers employed by families, agencies and institutions.

It also urged the government and employers to establish clear remuneration standards to help workers and families negotiate employment terms using reliable information.Ms Agbim said sustainable care systems depended on the ability of workers to earn a decent living from their work.“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.”