The Struggles of Parental Leave in Nigeria

When Akaninyene Akpan’s wife went for surgery in Abuja, another man was with her.

Mr Akpan was not there because he left his family. He was in Lagos, far away, unable to get paternity leave from his job.

His wife faced complications during labor and had a caesarean section. While her uncle was with her at the hospital, Mr Akpan, a teacher and football coach, could only send money from a distance.

“People would think he was the husband, while all I could do was send money. My child was first held by another man,” he shared.

For Mr Akpan, the birth of his first child should have started his journey into fatherhood. Instead, it showed him how little support Nigeria's labor system gives to fathers when their families need them most.

After the surgery, Mrs Akpan returned home to heal without her husband by her side. Women who have caesarean deliveries are often told to avoid heavy work. Mr Akpan remembered how his wife almost fell in the bathroom while trying to clean because she could not bend properly after the operation.

Unable to get time off work or any flexibility, he eventually quit his job after finishing his school’s sports competition for the term. This choice brought new worries for the family.

Without a job, he still needed to pay bills, care for a newborn and look for new work. After moving to Abuja, it took him nearly a full school term to find a new job.

But the emotional impact lasted longer than the financial struggles.

Months later, he saw that his child was closer to the man who took his place during those important early weeks. “Any day my wife’s uncle steps into the house, my child runs to him immediately,” he said.

Now, he lives with his family and is back at work. But he still thinks about the moments he missed. For him, the cost of Nigeria’s parental leave gap was not just about losing a job or being without money. It was about missing the first days of his child’s life, days that can never come back.

His story highlights a serious issue in Nigeria’s parental leave policies. When fathers are not around because of these rules, it affects mothers, newborns, and whole families.

More Than Just a Job Matter

Talking about parental leave in Nigeria often focuses on workers' rights or workplace welfare. But health experts say the effects go far beyond that. The weeks right after childbirth are critical for mothers and newborns.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says nearly half of all deaths in children under five happen in the first 28 days of life. This time also poses big health risks for mothers, especially in countries like Nigeria where maternal mortality rates are high.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that Nigeria has one of the highest rates of maternal and newborn deaths worldwide. The country accounts for about 28 percent of maternal deaths globally, making it one of the largest contributors to global maternal mortality.

This means more than 75,000 women die each year from pregnancy or childbirth issues, which is one maternal death every seven minutes.

Nigeria also has some of the highest rates of newborn and under-five mortality in the world. About 262,000 babies die at birth every year, while hundreds of thousands of children do not live to their fifth birthday.

Given this situation, experts say support during the postnatal period is not just nice to have but necessary.

Still, Nigeria’s policies do not provide enough support. Currently, the country gives 12 weeks of maternity leave to many workers in the formal sector, which is below the International Labour Organisation’s minimum recommendation of 14 weeks.

More importantly, Nigeria does not have a national paternity leave policy that applies to both public and private sectors, a gap that international reviews have pointed out.

Eligible workers are supposed to get at least half of their wages during leave if they meet the law’s conditions. But the law does not include statutory paternity leave, leaving private sector employers to decide if they want to give fathers time off after a child is born. This means access to paternity leave is different across employers, with many workers getting nothing.

In the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law report, Nigeria scored zero out of 100 for supportive parenthood laws, showing a lack of legal protections for parental leave and caregiving responsibilities.

For maternal health experts, these policy gaps directly affect recovery after childbirth.

Recovery Goes Beyond the Hospital

Halimat Jimoh, a nurse, midwife, and maternal and child health advocate, said postnatal recovery goes beyond what happens in hospitals.

While mothers get medical care during childbirth, she noted that their home conditions often affect how well they recover.

According to her, fathers usually are a mother’s main support during the immediate postnatal time by helping with baby care, house chores, and emotional support.

Their involvement can lower stress, help mothers rest, and make it easier to care for a newborn.

Ms Jimoh said mothers who have support from their partners tend to be more confident in breastfeeding and can better handle the physical and emotional demands of recovery.

Research backs this up. The WHO says that each extra month of paid maternity leave can mean about eight fewer infant deaths per 1,000 births.

WHO also states that a one-month increase in paid maternity leave is linked to a 5.9 percent rise in exclusive breastfeeding rates. For countries struggling with maternal and newborn health issues, these improvements can matter a lot.

Ms Jimoh noted that many Nigerian mothers go home to what she called minimal support, making them juggle physical recovery, childcare, and housework all at once.

The result is often tiredness, lack of sleep, slow recovery, and more emotional stress, especially for first-time mothers. She believes that postnatal care policies should focus not just on mothers but also include fathers in counseling, discharge planning, and support after childbirth.

“Postnatal health outcomes are shaped not only by what happens in the health facility, but also by the support system in the home environment,” she said.

While experts stress that support at home is key to recovery, mothers who have lived through it say the reality often goes beyond just physical healing after childbirth.

When PREMIUM TIMES spoke with Maryam Olaniyi, an entrepreneur, she called the weeks after giving birth one of the hardest times in her life.

Like many first-time mothers, she found it tough to adjust to the needs of a newborn while also healing from childbirth. Frequent breastfeeding left her very tired, and she often had to manage childcare and housework even while still recovering.

Although her husband got two weeks of paternity leave, she felt it was too short. In those early days, he, along with her aunt and sisters, helped take care of her and the baby, letting her pump breast milk so they could help with night feeds and give her a few hours of sleep.

She also shared with PREMIUM TIMES that losing her mother before the birth made everything harder, as she missed the support many women get from their mothers during the postpartum time.

After her relatives left following the baby’s naming ceremony, the burden fell mostly on her and her husband until he had to go back to work. She said his presence became very important during an emergency when their baby choked on expressed breast milk. Because he was at home, they could react quickly and take the baby to the hospital, even though the child was fine by the time they got there.

Once he returned to work, Ms Olaniyi had to handle everything alone during the day, caring for the baby, cooking, cleaning, and trying to recover from childbirth with little time to rest. The constant lack of sleep and physical demands left her mentally and emotionally worn out.

“If my husband had been able to stay home longer, I believe my postpartum experience would have been much easier and happier,” she said.

She thinks a longer paternity leave would have lessened her stress, improved her recovery, and helped both parents adjust better to caring for their newborn.

Besides helping mothers heal physically, she believes fathers present in those early weeks also provide emotional support, strengthen the bond with their children, and help families deal with emergencies.

From her experience, Ms Olaniyi said new mothers in Nigeria need more than just medical care after delivery. They also need practical help with childcare and housework, emotional support from their partners, enough rest, access to healthcare, and more awareness of postpartum mental health.

A Challenge for All Workers

These issues are not just for formal workers.

For Joshua Anumata, the birth of his child in June 2024 brought joy but also tough financial choices.

His wife had complications after delivery and needed multiple stitches. “There was no one to help her,” he said.

As a self-employed businessman who supplies materials for bag making, Mr Anumata had more freedom to step away from work than many salaried workers. He spent time caring for his wife and newborn. But every day he stayed home meant lost income.

“We had many expenses, but no income was coming in,” he said.

Like Mr Akpan, he believes fathers need more support during this time.

He described the early weeks after childbirth as key for bonding, learning, and offering help to both mother and child. His experience shows a larger truth: no matter their job status, many Nigerian fathers find it hard to balance caring for their families and making a living.

The Hidden Load on Women

The lack of good parental leave policies also impacts women heavily.

A 2025 report by NarratEQ, mentioned by TheCable, found that if women's unpaid care work had a monetary value, it would make up between 10 and 39 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reaching about $111 billion each year.

This finding shows how much of the country’s caregiving work stays invisible and unpaid.

Experts say parental leave policies can help share some of that load. Evidence reviewed by UNICEF suggests that family-friendly leave policies can help narrow the earnings gap and improve women’s participation in the workforce.

The economic effects are also significant. The World Bank states Nigeria could boost earnings by up to $23 billion by closing gender gaps in key economic areas.

UN Women argues that investing just 2 percent of an economy’s GDP in care services can lead to three times that amount in economic growth through more workforce participation and productivity.

For employers, parental leave can also make financial sense. Studies show that replacing an employee can cost between 24 and 150 percent of that worker’s yearly salary. Supportive leave policies, advocates say, can improve employee retention and lower turnover costs while boosting worker wellbeing.

Why Change is Slow

Despite growing proof that parental leave is beneficial, actual implementation is still limited.

Ekimini Akpanpa, the Executive Secretary of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), said the problem partly lies in Nigeria’s labor market structure.

Paternity leave is mostly limited to parts of the formal public sector where the government has more control. Many Nigerians work in informal jobs, contracts, and self-employment, where structured human resource policies are usually absent.

Even within organized private-sector companies, many employers still see paternity leave as optional instead of necessary.

The result is that millions of families miss out on policies meant to support shared caregiving, work-life balance, and early child development. This situation further enforces gender inequality by placing caregiving duties on women, often hurting their career growth and economic involvement.

Learning from Others

Some African countries have gone further than Nigeria in expanding parental leave protections.

Kenya offers 90 days of paid maternity leave and 14 days of paid paternity leave. South Africa has a shared parental leave system that lets parents share caregiving tasks. Ethiopia has increased maternity leave to 120 days, while Gambia provides a paid six-month maternity leave.

In Nigeria, some states like Lagos and Enugu have introduced six months of paid maternity leave for certain workers. The Federal Capital Territory provides 16 weeks of maternity leave and some limited paternity leave.

For policy experts, these instances show that stronger parental leave policies can be put in place.

Rethinking Parental Leave

Shirley Ewang, who leads Policy, Governance and Advocacy Practice at Gatefield, believes Nigeria needs a clear and enforceable national parental leave framework for both public and private sectors.

She argues that the country should at least guarantee 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and at least 14 days of paid paternity leave.

According to her, the current system does not fit the realities of modern family life. Instead, it creates an imbalance from the start, leaving mothers to do most of the caregiving while fathers are expected to go back to work almost immediately.

The effects go beyond individual families. Evidence from UNICEF links proper parental leave to better maternal and child health, more workforce participation, improved employee retention, and more balanced caregiving roles.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to ask about Nigeria's parental leave policies, including any plans for reforms. Messages were sent to the ministry’s spokesperson, Anne Daniel, but no response was received by the time of this report.