LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The NSCC director-general, Emem Omokaro, revealed this initiative on Sunday in Abuja during an interview marking President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office.
Omokaro highlighted that the NSCC has established a caregiving system for older adults as a skill in health and social care over the past year.
“What we have before now is that older persons are left to anybody that is available in the family; it does not matter whether the person knows anything about older age care and multimorbidity.
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“But, what we have done in this one year is that we work closely with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as a regulatory body for technical education to design a course in caregiving, which will now be a skill and will be integrated into the Nigerian skills qualification framework.
“That means geriatric social care is now a sector skill, which means that carers of older people must be trained and certified,” she said.
Ms. Omokaro highlighted that for the first time in Nigeria’s history, the NSCC has developed a comprehensive framework to standardize geriatric social care.
She explained that once the scheme is fully implemented, at least 1,000 geriatric caregivers will be trained and employed across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Ms. Omokaro noted that many Nigerians working in the care industry abroad lacked prerequisite training at home.
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Additionally, she stated that there is a demand within the Nigeria skills framework that necessitated the establishment of a geriatric social care sector.
Ms. Omokaro announced that the NSSC has formed a 23-member council led by the private sector, including all relevant stakeholders in geriatric social care, to tackle employment challenges in the sector.
“Apart from the council, we have identified and approved training providers with multi-disciplinary capacity because issues of care crisscross sociology, psychology, gerontology, medical therapies, community therapy and physical therapy.
“So, we have identified 22 states and federal government teaching hospitals that have geriatric units or centres for this purpose,” she said.
Ms. Omokaro added that the training program features five levels of certification, starting with the basic care level for senior secondary school leavers and progressing through levels three to five, which are incorporated into the Federal Civil Service Care for employment.
She emphasized that beyond job creation, the scheme aims to provide dignity, security, and joy to older adults, ensuring they receive certified care and are not neglected in their retirement years.