Zora Health / Employer guide / Nigeria
Support employees through fertility treatment, and keep the talent you have invested in.
Fertility treatment rarely fits around a work calendar, and most employees go through it quietly, often while doing some of their best work. Zora Health helps you build practical fertility support, from policies and manager guidance to confidential care navigation and access to 128+ partner clinics in 16 countries, around your workforce and budget. Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with us.
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Five things Nigerian HR leaders should know
- Nigeria’s total fertility rate was 4.8 in the 2023 to 24 NDHS, and 3.2 in Lagos; 18 of 80 known IVF centres reported 2,717 procedures to the African registry in 2022.
- There is no national law on assisted reproduction: bills from 2012 and 2016 have not passed, and Lagos is the only state with ART guidelines, issued in 2019.
- The NHIA Act 2022 makes health insurance mandatory for employers with 5 or more staff, but IVF is outside national benefit packages and most HMO plans, so patients pay themselves.
- A Lagos private clinic listed one IVF cycle at ₦2.9 million before drugs of ₦1.8 to 2.4 million in October 2026; Benue State University Teaching Hospital charges about ₦700,000.
- With medical costs forecast by Aon to rise 43% in 2026, a fixed annual allowance in naira keeps the budget predictable.
Why fertility is a business problem for employers
Fertility treatment does not fit around a work calendar. A clinic sets the date of a scan the day before. Egg collection happens when the body is ready, usually about 36 hours after a final trigger injection. Then comes a two-week wait, and for many couples, another cycle. Your team feels it: missed meetings, unexplained absences, a strong performer who suddenly goes quiet.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by infertility. We found no Nigerian survey of employees in fertility treatment. In a 2025 nationwide survey by Healthtracka, 43.4% of working women said they wanted better health insurance, including cover for fertility treatment (Nairametrics, May 2025).
- Resignations. In Ferring‘s 2025 survey of more than 3,600 employees and employers in Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, 39% of employees in fertility treatment had left or were considering leaving their job.
- Lower performance. 36% in the same survey felt pressure from their employer to be at work during treatment, and 17% took sick leave because their workplace lacked flexibility.
- Clinic quality. In January 2026 the head of Nordica Fertility Centre said more than 60% of those offering IVF in Nigeria lack the facilities to do so (ThisDay, via AllAfrica).
What employers gain
Keep the people you spent the most to develop
Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary, according to Gallup.
Stand out in a tight labour market
73% of employees with fertility challenges said they would be attracted to a role that offers fertility support (Ferring, 2025), and 65% said they would change jobs for fertility benefits (Carrot, 2023). In Nigeria, 80.7% of women aged 15 and over are in the labour market, but only 10.5% of employed women held wage or salaried jobs in 2025, against 17.0% of employed men (World Bank, via Nairametrics).
Make fertility support financially predictable
Aon forecasts gross medical trend of 43.0% for Nigeria in 2026, 6.0 points above general inflation (Aon Global Medical Trend Rates Report 2026). An annual or lifetime cap, with a list of treatments that qualify, fixes the employer cost in advance.
Zora helps employers structure benefits around local treatment costs, HMO cover and workforce needs, so HR can run the programme within an agreed budget.
Want to see what this would look like for your Nigerian workforce?
What IVF costs, and what the state pays
Clinics publish prices in naira, and drugs are usually charged separately.
| Item | Typical cost (₦) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IVF, one cycle with own eggs | 2,900,000 before drugs | Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos, October 2026; ICSI included; about US$2,140 |
| IVF stimulation drugs | 1,800,000 to 2,400,000 | Same clinic; about US$1,330 to 1,770. Consultation (200,000) and couple screening (400,000) are extra |
| IVF in Abuja and other major cities | 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 | NAN, August 2026; about US$2,950 to 3,680 |
| Frozen embryo transfer | 2,000,000 with drugs | Nordica, October 2026; about US$1,470 |
| IUI | 1,200,000 with drugs | Nordica, October 2026; about US$880 |
| Egg freezing | 1,500,000 to 3,500,000 per cycle | Daily Family, May 2026; storage about 200,000 to 400,000 a year |
| IVF at Benue State University Teaching Hospital | About 700,000 | Medical director, August 2026; patient buys some drugs |
Sources: Nordica Fertility Centre price list, updated October 2026; NAN, August 2026; Daily Family, May 2026. US dollar figures use ₦1,357, the official NFEM close on 27 October 2026 (WithinNigeria).
| Item | Public support (or own savings) | What the employee still carries |
|---|---|---|
| IVF under NHIA or HMO plans | None by default: IVF is outside national benefit packages and most private plans | The full cost of each cycle and its drugs |
| IVF at a public teaching hospital | Lower hospital fees at the few that offer it | Some drugs, travel and waiting time |
| Egg freezing | None | Freezing cycle and yearly storage fees |
| Tax relief | We found no tax relief for fertility treatment | All of the above |
Sources: Peoples Gazette, July 2024, quoting Lagos fertility specialist Olusanjo Moses; Mondaq, August 2023, on section 14 of the NHIA Act 2022. The NHIS operational guidelines of 2005 listed infertility management as an exclusion (NHIS), and Niger State’s 2024 scheme guidelines under the NHIA Act exclude IVF and ICSI (NiCare).
Age is one of the strongest predictors of IVF success. Nigeria has no registry that publishes outcomes by age. Across African centres reporting to the ANARA registry in 2021 and 2022, clinical pregnancies per transfer in cycles with genetic testing were 55.8% at 34 or under and 48.4% at 40 or over (Reproductive BioMedicine Online). A 10-year review at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital found clinical pregnancy in 23.7% of 604 women, 68.7% of them aged 35 or over (BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2023).
A Nordica fertility specialist quoted in 2026 advises freezing eggs before 35 and does not recommend it from 40 (Leadership), so the size of an allowance, and when employees can use it, matter as much as whether you offer one.
Give Employees Access to Fertility Specialists
Help employees navigate fertility care with access to doctors and clinics, treatment information, and clear guidance on IVF, egg freezing and other fertility options. Employees can explore their options privately, without needing to go through HR.
Fertility support that fits your workforce and budget
You do not need to overhaul your existing health insurance to support employees through fertility treatment. Start with awareness and manager education, add confidential one-to-one support, or introduce a funded allowance across your offices. There is no minimum company size.
Where included in the employer programme, eligible employees can use talks and care navigation without paying Zora a separate fee. Care navigation allowances are set in each proposal. Treatment and other third-party costs are paid separately, either by employees or through the fertility allowance their employer provides.
Companies starting the conversation
Essentials
Expert-led talks for employees and managers, fertility and menopause policy templates, manager guides and full access to the Zora app. Up to 2 talks a year.
Employees supported one to one
Navigation
Everything in Essentials, plus confidential one-to-one care navigation and access to our partner clinic network.
Large and multi-country teams
Complete
Everything in Navigation, plus quarterly anonymised reporting, a dedicated account manager and scheduled review meetings with HR.
Optional add-ons can be added to any programme, subject to availability: hormone and fertility diagnostics and telehealth with specialists. Pricing is tailored to your headcount, your countries and the services you choose. Most companies start with a single talk.
Request a proposal See how Zora works for employers
Comparing fertility benefit providers? Use our RFP question bank
Our RFP question bank has 40 questions, with why each one matters, what a good answer looks like and a scoring sheet for three providers. Six of the questions for Nigeria:
- Are local-plan employees covered, or only staff on international health plans?
- Do you require an infertility diagnosis before support starts?
- Which clinics can employees use in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and do you check that Lagos clinics are registered under the state guidelines?
- How does the allowance work alongside our HMO plan under the NHIA Act, given that most plans exclude IVF?
- How do you handle naira price changes for imported drugs, and can the allowance pay clinics directly?
- How is employee health information handled as sensitive personal data under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and what does the employer see?
Your download link appears here as soon as you submit. Zora Health may contact you about employee benefits; see our privacy policy.
Plan your fertility benefit budget
Fertility benefit budget planner
Model the annual claims budget for a fertility allowance. Change any number.
This is a claims budget, not a Zora quotation. Zora’s programme fees, implementation and optional services are separate.
Illustration only. Utilisation is an editable assumption, not observed Zora data. The calculation assumes each user claims their full annual allowance, and excludes programme fees and setup costs. For a tailored model, request an employer proposal.
Estimate the potential workforce impact of fertility challenges
A rough planning scenario. It applies a global infertility estimate to your headcount, so it is not a prediction for your workforce, a measured loss or a forecast of savings from any programme.
Range: ₦45,100,000 to ₦127,600,000 a year, depending on replacement cost.
Assumptions: infertility affects about 1 in 6 adults (World Health Organization, 2023), applied to employees aged 25 to 44. Replacing an employee costs one-half to two times their annual salary (Gallup, 2019); the headline uses the low end. Absence is valued at salary divided by 250 working days. Exit rate and days lost are your own assumptions.
This is a hypothetical cost scenario, not a prediction of actual employee departures, an estimate of Zora’s financial impact or a guaranteed saving from fertility benefits.
Already have corporate health insurance? Here is where Zora fits
Your medical plan may cover some consultations and tests, but fertility treatment is often limited or excluded, so check your policy wording. Employees still need to understand their options, the public funding they qualify for and which clinic suits them.
Zora works alongside your existing insurance and benefits. We help employees get reliable information, navigate their care options and reach suitable specialists, and we give HR manager guidance, policy templates and, on the Complete programme, anonymised reporting. You strengthen fertility support without replacing your medical plan.
How Zora works
For your employees
Employees join the Zora app with a company code, or single sign-on for larger teams. They can learn about fertility and egg freezing, understand what your benefit covers, book a confidential care navigation call and find partner clinics and specialists.
For HR
- Kick-off, week 1. Agree goals, countries and which employees are eligible.
- Policy and benefit design, weeks 2 to 4. Draft or update your fertility policy using our templates.
- Launch, typically weeks 4 to 6. A launch talk for employees and managers, plus a communications pack for HR to send.
- Live support. Employees book care navigation calls and use the Zora app.
- Reporting, every 3 months, on the Complete programme. Anonymised usage, common themes and our recommendations, reviewed with your account manager.
Privacy
Employee privacy is central to our programmes. On the Complete programme, routine employer reports contain aggregated engagement and utilisation information, with safeguards to prevent identification of individual employees. On every programme, personal health information is not included in standard HR reporting, and employees can get help without telling their manager. Where eligibility checks or claims administration need individual-level data, access is limited to authorised parties for defined purposes, as agreed in writing before launch. Employee data is handled in line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act and Nigeria’s Data Protection Act 2023, under which health status is sensitive personal data.
Clinics and doctors in Nigeria
Zora’s clinic and doctor directory does not list providers in Nigeria yet. It lists 421 clinics and 1,185 doctors across 25 countries, mostly in Asia Pacific and the Middle East (browse clinics or browse doctors). Employees in Nigeria can still use Zora’s education and the Zora app. Ask us how your team in Nigeria would use Zora before you launch. See Zora’s employer guides for every country.
Rules and eligibility in Nigeria
Who can use assisted reproduction
Nigeria has no specific law on IVF, which is neither expressly banned nor formally recognised (SCP, November 2025). A bill was read a second time in May 2012 (ThisDay) and another was introduced in 2016 (SCP); neither has passed. In September 2026 the Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health said it had worked with the National Assembly on an ART bill since 2023 (NAN). There is no statutory rule on who may be treated.
Lagos is the only state with clinic rules
Lagos launched ART guidelines in May 2019, and every facility offering ART must register with the state Ministry of Health (The Sun). HEFAMAA, the Lagos regulator of private health facilities, wrote them with the association; they cover clinic accreditation and minimum standards (The Guardian). They set an age limit of 54 for women, which an advocacy group opposed in May 2020 (The Guardian). We found no revision since 2019.
Gaps in the law
No federal law regulates surrogacy, and courts treat agreements as private contracts (Mondaq, February 2025). A child born from donor gametes is not automatically recognised as the intended parents’ child, so lawyers advise consent forms, a custody order after birth and prompt birth registration (SCP). We found no statutory rules on egg freezing, its age limits or storage periods.
Maternity and paternity leave
A woman may stop work 6 weeks before birth with a medical certificate and may not work for 6 weeks after it, with at least half pay if she has 6 months’ continuous service; an employer may not serve dismissal notice during this absence (Labour Act, section 54). Since July 2014 Lagos State has given its female officers six months on full pay for the first two births and male officers 10 working days (The Eagle), still reported in 2022 (Pulse). Since 25 November 2022, male federal civil servants get 14 working days of paternity leave, once every 2 years and for up to 4 children, including adoption of a child under 4 months (Channels TV). The Labour Act gives private sector staff no paternity or fertility leave, and we found no amendment in force by November 2026.
Discrimination and health data
The National Industrial Court has held that termination linked to pregnancy or marital status was discriminatory (Jackson, Etti & Edu). Section 42 of the Constitution bars discrimination by sex through any law or government action (Constitution). There is no statutory right to flexible work. The Nigeria Data Protection Act, signed on 12 June 2023, treats health status and sex life as sensitive personal data, processed only on conditions such as consent (section 30) (Future of Privacy Forum). In March 2025 the Nigeria Data Protection Commission issued the General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID) 2025, which sets out how the Act applies in practice, including breach reporting within 72 hours and when a data protection officer must be appointed (Legal 500, April 2025). Employers should receive only anonymous, aggregated data.
Why employers choose Zora
Companies including Hilton, LinkedIn, Sanofi, HSBC, Mastercard, Carousell and Singapore Management University work with Zora Health. We work alongside your existing insurance, helping employees use the cover they already have and find suitable specialists based on their needs.
Trying to conceive with a heavy workload took a toll on my husband and me. It helped us understand our options.
Questions HR teams ask us
Is fertility leave mandatory in Nigeria?
No. We found no statutory fertility or IVF leave in Nigeria. The Labour Act gives 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after birth, with at least half pay after 6 months’ service. Federal civil servants get 14 working days of paternity leave and Lagos State officers 10 working days, but private sector employers have no statutory paternity leave. Time off for treatment depends on company policy or sick leave.
Does health insurance in Nigeria pay for IVF?
Usually not. The NHIA Act 2022 makes health insurance mandatory for employers with 5 or more staff, but fertility care is missing from national benefit packages and most HMO plans do not cover IVF, so patients pay out of pocket. Check the employee’s plan for any fertility add-on.
Can employees freeze their eggs in Nigeria?
Yes. Egg freezing is offered by private clinics, and we found no law setting age or storage limits. Daily Family put the cost at about ₦1.5 million to ₦3.5 million a cycle in May 2026, with storage of about ₦200,000 to ₦400,000 a year. Lagos guidelines set an age limit of 54 for women seeking assisted reproduction.
Does Zora replace our health insurance?
No. Zora works alongside your insurance. We help employees understand their options, find suitable specialists and use the cover they already have.
How much does a fertility benefit cost an employer?
It depends on the allowance, eligibility and expected uptake. Use the budget planner on this page for a first estimate, then ask us for a tailored proposal based on your headcount and countries.
How quickly can we launch?
Typically 4 to 6 weeks from contract to launch, depending on scope and countries. Most companies start with a single talk.
Related guides for Nigerian employers
Build a fertility benefit for your team
Whether you are introducing fertility benefits for the first time or improving an existing programme, tell us your headcount, countries and priorities. We will come back within two working days with suitable services, an indicative budget and a practical rollout plan for your Nigerian team. No obligation.
Not ready to talk yet? Explore how Zora works
Sources
- National Population Commission and DHS Program, Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023 to 24: Key Indicators Report, September 2024
- Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Assisted reproductive technology in Africa: the African Network and Registry for ART, 2021 and 2022
- BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, A decennial cross-sectional review of assisted reproductive technology in a tertiary hospital in Southwest Nigeria, 2023
- Nordica Fertility Centre, price list, updated October 2026
- NAN, From N5m to N700,000: Benue’s fertility centre changes IVF story, August 2026
- Daily Family, Behind every frozen egg is a woman carrying more than hope, May 2026
- Leadership, Why women should store their eggs before age 35, mid 2026
- WithinNigeria, Dollar to naira today, 29 October 2026
- Peoples Gazette, Fertility specialist calls for inclusion of IVF in health insurance plans, July 2024
- Mondaq, Employers are now mandatorily required to provide health insurance, August 2023
- National Health Insurance Scheme, Operational Guidelines, October 2005 (exclusions, section XV)
- Niger State Contributory Health Agency (NiCare), Revised Operational Guidelines, November 2024
- Nairametrics, Report: 43% of Nigerian women want better health insurance (Healthtracka), May 2025
- Nairametrics, Only 10.5% of Nigerian women have paid jobs (World Bank), April 2026
- Aon, Global Medical Trend Rates Report 2026
- ThisDay via AllAfrica, Time for laws to regulate fertility medicine, January 2026
- ThisDay, Lack of regulation in fertility medicine, February 2025
- NAN, Fertility experts seek wider access ahead of Abuja conference, September 2026
- SCP, IVF in Nigeria: legal framework, November 2025
- The Sun, Assisted fertility: Lagos unveils guidelines to regulate practice, May 2019
- The Guardian Nigeria, New ART guidelines will curb quackery in IVF, regulate practice in Lagos
- The Guardian Nigeria, CEHEJ demands end to age limitation in assisted reproduction technologies, May 2020
- Mondaq, The legality of surrogacy practice in Nigeria, February 2025
- Labour Act, section 54 (Jurist.ng)
- Jackson, Etti and Edu, Employer’s guide to the legal framework for the protection of pregnant workers in Nigeria
- The Eagle Online, Lagos approves 10-day paternity leave, six months for maternity, July 2014
- Pulse Nigeria, Maternity and paternity leave in Nigeria, what does the law say?, August 2022
- Channels TV, FG approves 14-day paternity leave for civil servants, November 2022
- Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, section 42
- Future of Privacy Forum, Nigeria’s new Data Protection Act, explained, 2023
- Legal 500, The Nigeria Data Protection Commission issues the General Application and Implementation Directive 2025 (GAID), April 2025
- Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Fertility Matters at Work and This Can Happen, workplace fertility survey, November 2025
- Carrot Fertility, Global Fertility at Work report, 2023
- Gallup, This fixable problem costs US businesses $1 trillion, 2019
- World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people globally affected by infertility, April 2023
Information on this page is correct as of 5 November 2026. Laws, public funding, insurance rules and treatment costs change often, so check current rules with the relevant authority, insurer or a qualified adviser before making decisions. This page is general information, not legal, financial, tax or medical advice.