The Federal Government says it is working on plans to develop quality care for older persons in Nigeria.

Dr Emem Omokaro, the Director-General, National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) stated this on Tuesday during a 2-day workshop on development of policy guidelines and regulatory framework on quality care assurance for older persons.

”We are engaging with relevant stakeholders to develop Quality Assurance Systems and Regulatory Framework for Training, Classification, Recognition and Certification of Geriatric Social Care Skills.

”We will also assess training centers and training providers for accreditation of Geriatric Care givers and its agencies,” she asserted.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the event was organized in collaboration with the United Nations Development of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in Abuja.

However, Omokaro hinted that the two-day engagement was to ensure quality care for older persons in Nigeria.

On his part, the engagement was expected to consolidate on frameworks and standard operational procedures to ensure improvement in quality care and wellbeing of older persons and their caregivers in Nigeria.

”As well as opening up enormous job opportunities and the care industry sub-sector in Nigeria.

”Because, care of older persons is competence based which needs training and skills assessments at both the training center and workplace.

”Persons who desire to acquire skills and certification for employment as caregivers to older persons need learning opportunities to enhance their capacities and employability,” she said.

In his remark, the UN Resident and Coordinator Humanitarian in Nigeria, Mr Matthias Schmale said that one of the targets of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was to ensure that no one was left behind.

‘’It is unfortunate that one group that is neglected in the UN programme is the older persons.

”I do realize that as we develop our sustainable development framework, one group we neglected is older people. I'm really sorry for that, but it’s never too late.

”So, one commitment I have is one of the taglines of our sustainable development framework is leave no one behind.

”The older people are clearly a group that should not be left behind, So that’s a commitment I made to you on behalf of the United Nations,” he said.