Dementia care in Nigeria: what exists, what it costs, what families abroad can do

How common it is

• A 2019 review of nine Nigerian studies (10,820 people, median age 74) put the prevalence of dementia among older adults at 4.9%: 6.7% of women and 3.1% of men. The number of cases among people aged 60 and over was estimated at about 63,500 in 1995 and about 318,000 in 2015.
• A 2026 paper by Nigerian and UK psychiatrists puts the figure at 21% among people aged 90 and over, and says families absorb nearly all of the financial and logistical burden, because no dementia-specific financial support scheme exists.
• Nigeria is not on Alzheimer's Disease International's list of countries with a national dementia plan. Two recent papers describe the current system as fragmented and reactive.

Where the specialists are

• The Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Centre at University College Hospital, Ibadan, opened in December 2012 and describes itself as the first geriatric centre in Africa. It runs a memory clinic alongside neurology, ophthalmology, rheumatology, palliative care and healthy-ageing clinics, with its own laboratory, radiology, pharmacy and physiotherapy. It has registered close to 19,000 patients. Telephone 08131733447 or 08131734161.
• The Alzheimer's Disease Association of Nigeria, founded in 1999 and based at Nnamdi Azikiwe University's Nnewi campus in Anambra State, offers caregiver meetings, cognitive assessment, counselling, dementia-care training and support groups, and set up the first early-diagnosis clinic in a primary healthcare facility in Nigeria.
• Psychiatry and neurology departments at the big teaching hospitals in Lagos see people with dementia, but a dedicated memory clinic could not be confirmed at LUTH, LASUTH or the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, from their published pages. Ask the department directly.

What care costs in Lagos, 2026

• A caregiver at home, live-in or live-out: about N119,000 to N159,000 a month. A registered nurse at home: about N219,000 to N259,000 a month. A caregiver and a nurse together: about N329,000 to N359,000 a month (agency price list, May 2026).
• A residential place: one Lagos home publishes N1,050,000 a quarter for an independent resident, N1,350,000 for assisted living and N1,950,000 a quarter (about N650,000 a month) for nursing care, with a dementia-care surcharge of N100,000 a month.
• Donepezil 10mg, 28 tablets: N13,500 at a Lagos pharmacy in May 2026, on prescription. A Nigerian retail price for memantine could not be found.
• Health insurance rarely helps here: 22 million of Nigeria's roughly 240 million people had any health insurance in July 2026, and no dementia benefit line was found in the national scheme.

What families run into

• Stigma. Research with caregivers in Anambra and with Nigerians in the United States recorded dementia being described as witchcraft or madness, families keeping the person out of sight, and adult children abandoning parents because of the shame. Naming the condition inside the family is the first piece of care.
• Caregiver strain. In a 2016 survey of 1,119 people caring for someone aged 60 or over in Oyo State, 74% reported burden and 28% severe burden; rural caregivers had ten times the odds. That study excluded people with a dementia diagnosis, so the figures for dementia carers are likely to be higher.
• Regulation. In Lagos, home-care agencies and nursing homes must register with HEFAMAA, which requires a registered nurse, a supervising doctor and an emergency kit for home-care services. Ask any provider for its HEFAMAA registration.

What a family abroad can arrange

• A diagnosis first, from a memory clinic or a geriatrician. Memory loss has several causes and a WhatsApp call cannot tell them apart; the clinic can.
• Regular eyes in the house. Someone with dementia cannot report on their own week. A Kinship Plan puts a qualified nurse in the home in Lagos one, two or four times a month, with a written update after each visit that the family reads the same day and a named Kinkeeper who reviews every one.
• The money, in order of size. Medicines and a carer are the smaller sums; the cheapest published Lagos price for a residential place is over N4 million a year.

Questions people ask

Related

• Help for an elderly parent when you live abroad
• Care options in Lagos compared