Nigeria’s healthcare conversation may need to extend beyond hospitals and clinics as the growing burden of long-term care increasingly shifts to households.
This is the focus of the 2026 Care Conference, convened by The Purple Global Mission, which will examine how home care can become a structured component of Nigeria’s healthcare system rather than an informal responsibility largely carried by families and individual caregivers.
The conference, scheduled for November 19, 2026, in Lagos, will be held under the theme, “Care as Infrastructure: Building a National Position on Home Care for Nigeria.”
At the centre of the discussion is a question with significant economic implications: how does Nigeria account for, finance and regulate the care that happens after a patient leaves a hospital?
Across the country, families often take responsibility for rehabilitation, elderly care, disability support, recovery and long-term assistance at home. While these activities form an important part of healthcare delivery, they remain largely outside formal health systems and financing structures.
“You cannot finance care you cannot count,” is one of the propositions underpinning the conference.
The issue is particularly relevant in a healthcare system where households already carry a substantial share of healthcare costs. According to figures cited in the conference brief, approximately 71 per cent of Nigeria’s health spending is out of pocket, while health insurance covers an estimated 10 to 13 per cent of the population.
As more care moves from hospitals into homes, the financial responsibility can extend beyond medical bills to include transportation, caregiving time, rehabilitation, nursing support and other forms of long-term assistance.
The conference will examine the systems required to make home care safer, coordinated, measurable and sustainable, with discussions spanning workforce development and protection, clinical governance, continuity of care, digital health infrastructure, care data, financing and regulatory frameworks.
The focus on data is significant. Without reliable information on the volume, nature and cost of care being provided outside formal health facilities, policymakers and other stakeholders have limited visibility into the scale of the sector and the resources required to support it.
The discussions will also consider the transition from hospital to home, including structured discharge processes, home-based nursing and rehabilitation, digital records and financing models that could reduce the burden currently carried by families.
For households, the implications extend beyond healthcare costs. Long-term caregiving can also place pressure on household income and productivity when relatives have to reduce working hours or leave employment to provide care.
A key feature of the conference will be “The First Caregivers: The Family Panel,” which will bring the experiences of Nigerians providing care at home into the policy conversation. The event will also feature the launch of The Homecare Framework: Care as Infrastructure for Everyday Life.
One of the intended outcomes is the development and refinement of a Nigerian National Position on Care as Infrastructure, which The Purple Global Mission says will support continued policy dissemination, legislative engagement and stakeholder dialogue around how care is funded, regulated and integrated into Nigeria’s healthcare system.
Speaking on the rationale for the initiative, Mrs Abiola Ayilara, Founder of The Purple Global Mission, said, “Care in Nigeria has never been the problem, the absence of infrastructure around it has.”
The conference is expected to bring together policymakers, regulators, healthcare institutions, insurers, investors, technology companies, development partners, care providers, academics and family caregivers.
For Nigeria, the conversation is increasingly moving beyond who provides care to how the country can build the systems, financing structures and data infrastructure needed to recognize care as an integral part of its healthcare system and wider economy.