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On Sept. 17, 2025, DUBAWA published an investigation exposing a flourishing surrogacy practice that promotes the exploitation of women in exchange for paltry sums in Nigeria.
The investigation revealed how misinformation is weaponised to lure women into the practice, Facebook is utilised for advertising, and Nigeria’s lack of law in relation to surrogacy allows for exploitation.
The investigation was produced with a YouTube documentary and translated into Yoruba and Hausa.
The report documents the sad experience of a surrogate mother, Temitope Afolabi, an Ogun-based woman.
Here are five key revelations from this in-depth investigation:
- A bold yet unregulated market
Our investigation revealed that, although the complex web of laws in the African giant has yet to establish regulatory boundaries on surrogacy, it is a thriving business openly operated online across various parts of the country.
We found a plethora of Facebook accounts recruiting vulnerable individuals to serve as the harbinger of children for wealthy women. The lack of local legislation and a prosecution mechanism further emboldens these recruiters.
Although Nigerian lawmakers have made efforts to enact a law on surrogacy in the country, these efforts have been largely unsuccessful.
The exposé highlights how deep-seated illicit practices can flourish in Nigeria’s digital space when laws are silent, risking the nation becoming a global hub at the epicentre of the dangerous practice, given its growing youth population.
- Social media’s dangerous complicity
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, claimed on its website that it has “a responsibility to promote the best of what people can do together by keeping people safe and preventing harm.”
Despite this assertion, the multinational technology giant allows advertisements on Facebook that promote surrogacy with an estimated monthly active user base of 3.98 billion on its Application (APP).
By confronting the technology giant with our findings, Facebook deleted two such groups while expressing its readiness to remove advertisements and groups on its social media network that exploit people through the sale or illegal adoption of children.
Meanwhile, Olivia Maurel, an international activist against the trade of surrogacy, observed that beyond deleting such groups, it is high time Meta developed a policy that monitors and bans all forms of surrogacy advertisements in vulnerable countries like Nigeria.
- Medical complications
Although promoters of surrogacy claim that it is “safe”, medical experts and researchers note that it comes with risks associated with pregnancy, including death.
Corroborating this, Temitope, the surrogate in our story, explained that after she delivered the baby on Feb 24, 2025, she suffered from several medical conditions.
She began menstruating thrice a month, had a fibroid and ovarian cysts, and often suffered from lightheadedness. When she informed the agency that facilitated her surrogacy journey, her agent told her that post-partum healthcare ends at six weeks post-partum.
This is not unique to Temitope, as another source, a student of UNIBEN, told DUBAWA she exhausted half of the money she was paid after the childbirth on healthcare issues.
- Health misinformation
DUBAWA found that the recruiting agents of surrogacy in Nigeria employ bogus narratives and a spurious promise of a better life. Conversations with surrogate agents on WhatsApp are often half-truths, outright lies, or concealment in their pursuit to recruit women.
One such instance is how Omobolanle Oguntola, an agent, claimed that giving birth to a baby through a cesarean section (CS) is “better and safer” than a natural birth. Contrary to the assertion, a medical expert told DUBAWA that natural birth, not CS, is better for a surrogate because it comes with a faster post-delivery recovery process and does not leave a scar.
Against the agent’s claim, the medical professional also clarified that surrogacy does not deal only with the usage of the woman’s womb, as the woman’s lungs are being used to help the baby breathe, among others.
The impact of surrogacy and the fake narratives surrounding its practice in Nigeria paint a damaging picture of the country’s reputation among several nations where surrogacy has been criminalised.
- An exclusive trade for the well-to-do
The surrogacy industry is estimated to be worth $22.4 billion globally. As such, it continues to thrive despite the United Nations tagging the practice as a form of violence against women and girls.
You need at least ₦ 1 million to hire a surrogate in Nigeria. As a result, it is a business that only wealthy individuals can afford to engage in. Nigerian celebrities like Nancy Umeh, Ini Edo, and Chimamanda Adichie have publicly admitted to using surrogate services.
