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Nigerian govt mulls census of aged persons to redress challenges

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Nigerian govt mulls census of aged persons to redress challenges

The Federal Government has disclosed plans towards the conduct of a census of aged people across the country.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director General of the National Senior Citizen Centre, Emem Omokaro, in Abuja.

Omokaro explained that the census would help the centre to meet the various challenges of older persons.

She further noted that research had revealed that four out of six older persons are abused by their caregivers.

Speaking at an event to mark the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, Omokaro said: “We will work with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to conduct a national multi-indicator survey on ageing and older persons.

Read also: CENSUS: Buhari approves N10bn for NPC

“For all these years, older persons have been left out of any kind of national survey.

“So, we do not have a database of the older persons. A national survey will help us to build a database that will help us to know where they are, their socio-economic status, their medical conditions, and everything about them.”

She also detailed plans to set up special health care centres for aged people.

“We will set up health and social care programmes. We have primary health care centres. Over the years, they have been focused on maternal and childcare. But now, the centre will work very closely with the National Primary Health Care (NPHC) to ensure that the health care centres are modified to include care for the elderly.”

By Mayowa Oladeji…

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