🇳🇬 Nigeria Ageing, Long-Term Care & Community Support Knowledge Hub

Nigeria is entering an increasingly important period of demographic and social change as greater longevity, urbanisation, migration, changing household structures and the growing prevalence of chronic illness, disability and frailty reshape the support needs of older people. Long-term care remains strongly rooted in families, extended kinship networks, communities, faith organisations and informal caregiving, while formal home care, residential services, healthcare, social protection, health insurance and private-sector provision continue to develop. Federal institutions, state and local governments, households, community organisations, healthcare providers and an emerging formal care market therefore all have roles in determining how older Nigerians receive support. The first collection within this Knowledge Hub explores Nigeria Ageing, Long-Term Care & Community Support, with additional specialist collections being introduced as the library expands.

Although Nigeria’s demographic profile remains younger than that of many European and East Asian countries, the absolute scale of its population means that ageing has major long-term implications for health, social protection, housing, family life and service development. Nigeria has established a National Senior Citizens Centre as the federal focal institution for ageing and older people, alongside a National Policy on Ageing and wider social-protection arrangements. At the same time, access to organised long-term support remains uneven and much day-to-day care continues to depend on families and communities. Nigeria therefore presents an important case study in how a large, diverse and rapidly changing country can strengthen support for older people while formal systems of long-term care are still developing.

Many of the pressures facing Nigeria also have wider international relevance. These include sustaining family caregiving as household structures change, reducing the financial burden of illness and dependency, extending health and social protection, addressing rural and regional inequalities, developing affordable home and community services, professionalising the care workforce, supporting people living with dementia and frailty, protecting older people from abuse and exploitation, improving continuity between hospitals and communities, adapting housing and using technology to extend access. Nigeria’s experience can therefore provide valuable learning for governments, providers, commissioners, community organisations, researchers, investors, health systems and policymakers in other countries where ageing is occurring alongside rapid economic and social transition.

This Knowledge Hub has been created to examine Nigeria’s approach to population ageing, national policy, federal, state and local responsibilities, long-term care financing, household expenditure, pensions and social protection, health insurance, family caregiving, home and community support, residential care, rural and urban inequalities, workforce development, dementia, mental health, disability, frailty, prevention, rehabilitation, palliative care, safeguarding, housing, digital health, technology, quality assurance, regulation, evidence, service integration and long-term system development. It forms part of the interconnected international knowledge library across Impact Guru and Impact Insights Hub, supporting comparison between care systems while recognising that policies and delivery models must be interpreted within their own social, economic and institutional contexts.

As the collection develops, articles will explore demographic change, the role of families and communities, responsibility across federal, state and local levels, public and household financing, pensions and financial security, health-insurance coverage, home-based support, community care, residential services, rural access, urban ageing, workforce shortages and professionalisation, unpaid caregiving, migration and the Nigerian diaspora, dementia, later-life mental health, disability and frailty, healthy ageing, nutrition, chronic disease, hospital discharge, rehabilitation, palliative and end-of-life care, safeguarding, elder abuse, technology, telehealth, age-friendly housing, regulation, quality assurance, data, evidence, integrated long-term care and future care-economy development. The aim is to build a practical, evidence-informed resource explaining how policy, public institutions, communities, providers, families, funding, workforce, technology and evidence interact to shape the experiences and outcomes of older people in Nigeria.

The Nigerian context also raises important questions about how formal services should develop without displacing the strengths of family and community support. Sustainable reform will require more than simply expanding institutional provision. It will involve strengthening prevention and healthy ageing, supporting unpaid carers, developing trusted home and community services, improving access to healthcare and financial protection, building workforce capability, creating proportionate quality and safeguarding arrangements and ensuring that older people themselves have a meaningful voice in the design of services and policy. The development of more inclusive systems for ageing will therefore depend on coordination across health, social protection, community development, housing, technology and economic policy.

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