Experts Speak On Adoption And How The Process Is Fuelling Baby Factories
Legal experts and social workers have said that Nigeria’s weak law enforcement and slow adoption process are fuelling illegal baby sales and the proliferation of baby factories.
They further noted that the lack of government regulation and enforcement in Nigeria’s social work sector is encouraging unprofessional practices, corruption, and illegal activities, including unlawful adoptions and baby sales in children’s and orphanage homes.
PUNCH Healthwise reported last week that operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons rescued about 26 trafficked children from an orphanage home in Benue State and arrested four operators for allegedly selling trafficked children for between ₦1m and ₦3m.
The NAPTIP National Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, stated that the arrested syndicate allegedly trafficked and sold over 300 children under the guise of adoption, among whom 26 were rescued.
It was also reported that the Ondo State Police Command arrested one Ada Clement for allegedly operating a baby factory in Ore, the headquarters of Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
The Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr Olayinka Ayanlade, in a statement, said men of the command rescued five pregnant underage girls found in the illegal facility.
He added,
“It was further discovered that the babies were sold for ₦400,000 and above for female children, and ₦600,000 and above for male children.”
According to the 2024 United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, the Nigerian government identified and referred 1,194 victims of trafficking in 2024, including 654 sex trafficking victims and 540 labour exploitation victims.
Findings show that NAPTIP has investigated 12,985 cases since its inception, leading to about 692 convictions for human trafficking offences.
Commenting on the matter, a human rights law expert at the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Prof. Jacob Dada, said Nigeria’s weak law enforcement and sluggish adoption system are fueling illegal baby sales and the proliferation of baby factories across the country.
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He identified multiple factors sustaining child trafficking in Nigeria, which he classified as legal, social, and economic. He added:
“There are multifarious and multidimensional factors responsible for fuelling and sustaining child trafficking in Nigeria. Arbitrarily, these factors can be classified as legal, social, and economic.”
He added that inadequate legislative and institutional frameworks have created loopholes exploited by traffickers, while poor enforcement continues to embolden offenders. He further stated:
“On the legal factor, we can identify inadequate legislative and institutional frameworks that perpetrators exploit. Also, weak enforcement is a problem.
Trafficking is not a novel crime or problem, and many have been arrested, but owing to evident laxity in prosecution, it would appear not many have been convicted to serve as a deterrent.”
He noted that desperation, ignorance, and social pressure to have children have driven many Nigerians to engage in questionable adoptions or illegal baby purchases. Dada said:
“Many, owing to a combination of issues such as ignorance, desperation, and pressure to have children, have had to undertake questionable adoptions. Also, many do it for the financial benefits derivable from it.”
The professor lamented that the slow pace of Nigeria’s legal adoption process has led many intending adoptive parents to seek quicker, illicit alternatives.
“Without doubt, the slow pace of the adoption process has led to avoidable frustration and desperation of many who are seeking legitimate adoption. Such persons are, therefore, constrained to patronise, obviously at great cost, anyone offering to help,”
he said.
He described the buying and selling of babies as “morally deplorable and legally reprehensible,” urging Nigerians not to engage in such acts. He warned:
“The counsel, therefore, is on no account must anyone be involved in the unholy business of buying babies.”
Dada called for urgent legislative and institutional reforms to strengthen Nigeria’s legal framework and simplify adoption procedures. He advised:
“The current legal process can be strengthened through legislative and institutional reforms. Among others, the current legal regime should simplify the process, provide a timeframe for the completion of the process, and make provision for stiff penalties for contravention.”
The don also stressed that while most states have domesticated the Child Rights Act and NAPTIP exists, the problem lies in poor implementation.
“Most states have domesticated the Child Rights Act, and we have NAPTIP. The problem is not about domestication. It is more about inadequate implementation of the existing legal frameworks,”
he added.
He maintained that addressing child trafficking and illegal baby sales in Nigeria would require firm political will, institutional reforms, and deliberate efforts to strengthen accountability in the justice system.
A Professor of Social Work at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Prof. Uzoma Okoye, blamed deep-rooted cultural pressure to have children and corruption in the adoption system for the persistence of baby factories and illegal child trafficking in Nigeria.
She also said the high premium placed on childbearing, especially for male children, fuels desperation among couples and sustains the demand for baby-selling networks. She said:
“One of the major reasons why it’s happening is the high premium we place on a couple having children. Bill Clinton had a daughter, Angela Merkel doesn’t have a child, and Macron doesn’t. But here in Nigeria, we place a high premium on the idea that if you’re married, even if you’re not married, you must have a child.”
Okoye added that the absence of social security systems further pushes people to have children at all costs. She went further:
“We want to maintain the family name or have someone who will take care of us in old age because we don’t have a social security system. So, you must look for a way to get your own.”
She noted that the stigma surrounding adoption in some Nigerian cultures drives people to deceit. She continued:
“Some cultures don’t even recognise somebody taking a child, so you may have to go and lie about it and not get the child. When something is stigmatised, people will do it the crooked way. Some will lie, put a wrapper on their stomach, then after nine months, they come back with a baby. The society is forcing them to do that.”
Okoye said regional differences in cultural expectations also play a role. She added:
“In the Southeast, a marriage must produce a male child. In the Southwest, it’s not so much because I have friends who have only girls, and they are not bothered. But in the Southeast, it is unheard of. All these things are drivers forcing this to happen.”
The professor linked the growing black market for babies to greed, corruption, and the get-rich-quick mentality in society. She continued:
“Our society has degenerated to a point where everything that counts now is just money. If you don’t have money, you don’t belong. People do unthinkable things to get that money, including rituals. Apart from money, it’s also about political power.”
She alleged that corruption in adoption agencies discourages people from following legal procedures.
“One of the reasons why the black market for babies is patronised is that when you go to the ministry for adoption, you are frustrated. The corruption in the agencies of government that are supposed to handle adoption is enormous. Sometimes they collude with baby factories. They source their babies from there,”
she added.
Okoye said many of those handling adoption matters were not trained social workers. The professor also alleged that some security officers collude with traffickers, expressing concern that despite arrests and reports, few offenders are punished.
“How many of them have we seen punished? How many are in court? We don’t have such statistics. If people know they’ll face life imprisonment or jail time, they will stop. But there’s no punishment at all.”
Okoye also lamented the non-implementation of the National Council for Social Work, which she said could help regulate adoption and child welfare practices.
“President Buhari approved the council in 2022, but it has not been formally set up. Once you have a formal council, there are things you can do, just like the medical council can withdraw licences or close hospitals,”
she said.
She stressed the need for social reorientation about adoption, saying, “We need to tell people not to stigmatise families who adopt children.
Okoye called for stronger value reorientation, enforcement of existing laws, and real punishment for offenders.
Also, the President of the National Association of Social Workers, Mr Mahood Mustapha, blamed the rise in unlawful adoptions and baby selling on the lack of government regulation in Nigeria’s social welfare sector.
He said the absence of a functioning regulatory body has allowed unqualified individuals, including religious and political groups, to run orphanages and children’s homes for profit.
“The non-regulation of social work practice in Nigeria is the root cause of corruption and unprofessional conduct in children’s homes,”
he said.
Mustapha added that until the National Council for Social Work is fully established, “many of these homes will continue to operate like money-making ventures rather than child welfare institutions.”