The National Senior Citizens Centre, (NSCC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), with the National Board of Technical Education, (NBTE), on the development of geriatric social care skills qualifications, care quality assurance, and regulatory system for the social care sector.

Signing the MoU yesterday in Abuja, Director General, NSCC, Dr. Emem Omokaro, said that the NSCC Care Quality Assurance program consists of a collection of projects including the development of benchmark and minimum standards for training and certifying caregivers, development of standards for accrediting care facilities and agencies and the development of caregivers as well as agencies registration portals among others.

“The expected outcome is a consolidation of frameworks and standards for operational procedures to improve the quality of care and well-being of older persons and their caregivers while opening up enormous job opportunities in the caregiving subsector industry in Nigeria,” she explains.

Executive Secretary, NBTE, Professor Idris Bugaje, notes that the MoU will not only facilitate qualifications and quality assurance in the area of skills necessary for social caregivers in order to be able to provide adequate care for the elderly, among others, but also ensures that Nigeria is in tune with global best practises and current acceptable trends in the sector.

He said “In the past, caregiving was done in a very traditional way with the Immediate family members. This used to be the arrangement in the past; today, African societies are becoming westernised and the implication of this is that caregiving now has to be institutionalised professionally.

“We must now develop the skills, we must develop the occupational standards and we must bring in the necessary quality assurance mechanisms to ensure it is delivered well.”