The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Barr. Oluwaseun Faleye, has said the success of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) relies heavily on collaboration with financial institutions, labour unions, governments, and other key stakeholders.

Faleye stated this at the 12th Triennial Delegates Conference of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and other Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), held over the weekend in Lagos, where he delivered a presentation on “The Benefits of NSITF to the Nigerian Worker and the Roles of Financial Institutions in the Success of the Fund.”

He noted that financial institutions play an indispensable role in the ECS ecosystem, saying:

“Financial institutions touch every employer, every employee, every organisation. Your systems drive compliance, accountability, and efficiency. Your partnership can determine how widely, how quickly, and how successfully NSITF can deliver support to workers.”

The NSITF chief highlighted specific areas where financial institutions can help strengthen the Fund’s operations, including driving national compliance with the ECS, supporting digital transformation, ensuring faster and real-time compensation payments, and promoting a culture of security and safety awareness.

Taking the delegates through the Fund’s core services under the ECS, Faleye explained that the NSITF provides comprehensive protection for workers by caring for injured employees from the moment an incident occurs, paying disability benefits, providing compensation to families in cases of fatality, empowering disabled workers through rehabilitation and return-to-work programmes, and helping prevent workplace hazards.

“We live in a time when economic pressure threatens the dignity of labour. The worst thing that can happen to a worker is to face injury or occupational disease without support. NSITF ensures the worker doesn’t walk alone. We are the bridge over sudden hardship, the quiet engine of social protection, and a critical pillar in the national labour ecosystem,” he said.

Faleye called for stronger partnerships among NSITF, labour unions, financial institutions, employers, and governments.

“This is not the time for silence, fragmentation, or complacency. It is the time for stronger alliances among stakeholders,” he stressed.

The conference, themed “Solidarity in Action: Building Workers’ Power and Confronting Hardship,” drew delegates from ASSBIFI chapters nationwide and other stakeholders in the finance and labour sectors.