The Nanny Academy (TNA) has called on the Federal Government, employers and development partners to formalise Nigeria’s care workforce, enforce decent working conditions and recognise caregiving as skilled employment deserving fair wages, social protection and professional recognition.

The call coincides with this year’s International Day of Care and Support, marked under the theme, “Building Sustainable Care and Support Systems Through Decent Work”.

The academy, an internationally recognised caregiver training and placement institution accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and QVSE, said care workers remained largely informally employed, poorly protected and undervalued despite their critical role in supporting families and sustaining economic activity.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Amara Agbim, said decent work must guarantee more than basic earnings, stressing the need for stable incomes, safe working conditions and access to essential protections.

“We have spent 16 years insisting that care is skilled work. 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,” Agbim said.

According to the academy, it has trained and placed more than 20,000 caregivers since 2010, with about 1,000 women trained annually and a reported placement rate of 90 per cent.

It said its placement model promotes formal employment through payments into commercial bank accounts, written employment terms and health maintenance organisation (HMO) coverage.

The institution also upholds Nigeria’s N70,000 national minimum wage as a baseline, while encouraging employers and caregivers to negotiate higher remuneration.

Through CareFrontier, its newsletter on the care economy, the academy has continued to make the case for better wages, reasonable working hours and stronger employment protections, arguing that care work can provide a pathway out of poverty only when workers enjoy decent conditions.

Its 2026 Salary and Wages Survey, currently underway, is expected to generate data to inform discussions on remuneration and working conditions across the sector.

Agbim said the academy’s advocacy also seeks to challenge stereotypes that reduce caregiving to domestic assistance rather than recognise it as a profession requiring training, competence and accountability.

“We don’t want househelps; we want professionals,” the academy said, describing the statement as central to its campaign for professional standards and recognition.

It added that its NBTE/QVSE-accredited programmes and National Skills Qualification (NSQ)-certified training were designed to equip caregivers with recognised credentials.

The academy disclosed that it was a member of the Nigerian Care Coalition and had partnered with Caring Africa to develop a draft national care policy framework for stakeholder consideration.

As part of its demands, it urged policymakers to recognise care work as skilled employment, establish and publish wage and working-condition benchmarks, extend social protection and health insurance to caregivers, and include frontline workers in policy discussions on early childhood development, eldercare and gender equality.

“Care is the future. It cannot be automated,” Agbim 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.”

In a related development, the academy highlighted the participation of Comfort, a governess trained by the institution, in a national panel at GS-26 in Abuja in September. She joined government and development-sector leaders to discuss delivering early childhood development services at the last mile.

The academy said her participation demonstrated the value of bringing frontline caregivers into policy discussions, noting that their practical experience in homes and childcare settings could help shape more effective care systems.

“When a caregiver can sit on a national panel and speak from her own experience, it says what training and recognition make possible,” Agbim said. “Decent work does not stop at the pay slip. It includes having a voice.”

The institution called on policymakers, development partners and the private sector to ensure that home-based caregivers and creche operators are represented in consultations on early childhood development, eldercare and women’s economic participation.

Founded in 2010, The Nanny Academy trains and places nannies, housekeepers and caregivers with families and institutions, with centres in Lagos and Abuja. Further information is available at www.thenannyacademy.com.