‘Care industry in Nigeria has enormous potentials with government support’

Dapo Olugbodi is the Chief Executive Officer of Arrowshot Care Solutions, trailblazer in the care sector. He spoke with The Guardian on the need to secure professional care services for the aged and the need to maintain the highest standards in the sector. He said with government’s support, the industry would grow in leaps and bounds. Excerpts.

What is unique about Arrowshot Care Solutions?
Arrowshot Care Solutions has a strong focus on professionalism. Our staff are well-trained to care for the elderly and in line with standards that are uncommon in Nigeria. Our workers undertake an initial care assessment to determine the service-user’s needs and so tailor care to these needs. We also provide weekly reports to clients on how their relatives are doing, carry out one-month care and quarterly care reviews. Supervisors also conduct random unannounced checks on care givers and give clients direct access to a responsible manager empowered to make decisions – all underpinned by clear written policies.

Arrowshot places emphasis on integrity. It is another hallmark of our service delivery. We recruit staff based on their integrity, and to validate this, we carry out detailed background checks, which are conducted by the Background Check International Ltd. This ensures that when we place care givers with service-users, we can vouch for their integrity. This is also reinforced by the fact that every carer has a guarantor who is responsible in the very unlikely event anything goes wrong, which is an incentive to the carer to ensure nothing goes wrong.

We care. It is a basic imperative for anyone who seeks a career in the sector. This is a key requirement for anyone who would work with ACS. They need to be naturally caring, sympathetic and empathetic. These natural attributes are then accentuated and increased by quality customer service training based on United Kingdom standards. As we say in our company, ‘You care for your loved ones. We care for your loved ones.’

Our workers are knowledgeable. The place of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Knowledge is power. That’s why apart from the regular training that we provide to our staff, we also train them in the United Kingdom Care Quality Commission (CQC)’s 15 Fundamental Standards of Care, contextualising this and applying it to the realities of Nigeria to ensure they are relevant. This is provided by a UK certified trainer who is Nigerian-born but practices in the UK, so she bestrides both contexts and can provide international standard training with Nigerian practicalities in mind.

Can you tell us more about your interactive website?
We also offer interactive website development. It is important to state that we focus on ensuring seamless communication with our target audience and stakeholders. We recently developed and redesigned our website to showcase our upscale service offerings. The new website also attracts our target audience and provides one stop shop for information on our service delivery.
Through the website, we project our strong care qualities, professionalism and targeted, bespoke solutions for every client and service user.

This is also seen in our very name – Arrowshot Care Solutions. We direct solution arrows to particular situations to tackle the peculiarities of each situation.. To support this brand, our website design is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate. It projects the Arrowshot Care brand personality as vibrant and dynamic.

What is the role of Information and communications technology (ICT) in care industry?
The role of ICT is key in the effective delivery of professional services. We have found that most of the technologies that we were seeking to develop were not suitable for the Nigerian context. For example, we thought of deploying an app that will show clients overseas if a carer is in their parent’s house in Nigeria. We found this was not practical as many Nigerians switch off their data which means the app could not broadcast regularly. So, our ICT focus has been to develop a website that is extremely user-friendly. This is why after just one year of having this website, we have completely redesigned it to make it even better. It has a cleaner look and we have added new sections such as a ‘Testimonials’ section so people can easily see what our current clients are saying about us. We also have a new media section that covers news about ACS and our views about the care sector nationally and internationally. We enthusiastically invite people to visit our website and check us out on all the broadly used social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter (now known as X), Instagram and others.

Meanwhile, we will continue to look at applications that will strengthen our determination to provide premium care delivery services in Nigeria.

What is the future of care service industry in Nigeria?
It is a positive development as the care sector will  surely grow in leaps and bounds.
The future is, indeed, bright. Nigerian culture is rapidly changing. It used to be that once  elderly citizens retired, they would go went back to their hometowns and villages where they would have relatives and neighbours to care for them. That is no longer the case. These days, retirees tend to find themselves living alone, struggling to meet their own personal needs by themselves. With services like Arrowshot Care Solutions, you will be able to rest assured that your loved one is getting quality care provided by people with integrity. It also means there will be immediate cover if one carer leaves, as a new carer trained to the same level can immediately take over. We will even provide care in the hospital if your relative is admitted.

What is your opinion on what is presently applicable in the country?
It should, however, be pointed out that Nigeria needs to compete favorably in the global market. The care sector is a vibrant one, which should be accorded government’s backing to make it grow. This may take the form of means-testing so that vulnerable people who cannot fund their own care needs themselves have their funding partially, or wholly provided by the government, especially state governments. Government can also put regulations and guidance in place to ensure high standards are achieved by entrants into the sector. Arrowshot Care Solutions can support and advise state governments who are interested.