The Alternative Bank’s Maiden Autism Stakeholders Roundtable and Policy Dialogue has advocated for a critical shift away from traditional, core academics toward vocational training, talent development, and structured financing models.
The high-level meeting, organized in partnership with the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, PSHAN, and Sterling One Foundation, brought together policymakers, educators, and healthcare leaders to transition the national autism conversation from mere awareness to functional independence and employability.
While delivering the keynote address, Founder and Director of the Patrick Speech and Languages Centre, PSLC, Mrs. Dotun Akande, highlighted the flaws in Nigeria’s current education model, which overemphasises rote learning and examinations.
She warned that this one-size-fits-all approach leaves both autistic and neurotypical children disengaged and unprepared for the labor market.
“Functional independence, employability, and fulfillment come from identifying and nurturing each child’s unique strengths,” Akande noted.
She urged stakeholders to channel the unique skills of autistic children, such as pattern recognition, attention to detail, and creativity, into vocations like information technology, data analysis, arts, and agriculture.
“Nigeria’s autism system should mandate that every care pathway plan includes a vocational and talent development component from primary school onward,” she said.
To support this systemic overhaul, the dialogue stressed the need for sustainable, structured financing to replace the current reliance on out-of-pocket payments and ad-hoc philanthropy.
Experts called for the immediate inclusion of autism screening and therapy within the National Health Insurance Authority, NHIA, alongside a blended financing model uniting government funding, development finance, and private-sector innovation.
President of the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria, MWAN, Lagos State Branch, Dr. Ime Okon, reinforced this necessity in her goodwill message.
“Medical expertise must be met with the fiscal infrastructure to create lasting change. We align with the call for sustainable financing and investment in scalable interventions.
“How you show up means ensuring that medical protocols are backed by inclusive legislation and the funding to sustain it,” Dr. Okon stated.
While aligning the Bank’s corporate strategy with these developmental goals, Korede Demola-Adeniyi, Executive Director, Commercial and Institutional Banking, Lagos and Southwest, at The Alternative Bank, asserted that systemic reform must begin in the classroom.
Outlining the Bank’s new three-pillar intervention agenda, she emphasised that inclusive education is paramount.
“No child should be locked out of learning simply because our classrooms were not designed with them in mind,” Demola-Adeniyi remarked.
She reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to driving actionable policy frameworks that will eliminate legislative bottlenecks and scale high-impact, inclusive education programs across the country.
“I want to be specific about what that commitment looks like in practice, because words without action are precisely the pattern we are trying to break. In partnership with Eliakim Global Resources, we will commence a structured capacity-building programme on Receptive Language Disorder.
“It is an intensive, hands-on course delivered over four sessions, and… we chose to begin there deliberately, because receptive language is one of the earliest and most consequential developmental markers, and one of the most commonly missed,” Demola-Adeniyi added.
Participants driving the policy shift included Solape Azazi, Founder, Cradle Lounge Special Needs Initiatives; Dr. Joy Ngozi Alejo, Consultant Paediatrician, University College Hospital, Ibadan; Nneamaka Faith Mokwe-Ijiko, Founder, Eliakim Global Resources; and Habeeb Lawal, Regional Business Executive, Commercial & Institutional Banking, AltBank.
Others are Dr. Omotoke Olugbode, Founder, The Autism Awareness Foundation, TAAF; Ugochukwu Nwosu, Head of Programs and Grants, Aspire Coronation Trust, ACT, Foundation; and Hon. Lawal Aina Musibau, Chairman, House Committee on Health Services & Primary Health Care, Lagos State House of Assembly.
