The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has called on employers to move workplace safety beyond mere regulatory compliance and embed it as a core business culture, warning that unsafe work environments threaten productivity, sustainability, and national economic growth.
NECA President, Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the final leg of the 2025 Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)–NECA Safe Workplace Intervention Project (SWIP) Interactive Enlightenment Forum and Awards Ceremony.
Okoye described safe workplaces as no longer optional but a strategic necessity for businesses, noting that the decision to conclude the nationwide SWIP engagements in Abuja was symbolic.
“Workplace safety is no longer a regulatory obligation alone; it is a strategic business imperative. Safe workplaces enhance productivity, protect human capital, and ultimately support business sustainability,” he said.
He explained that SWIP, a joint initiative of NECA and the NSITF, was designed to promote a culture of safe, healthy, and productive workplaces, while deepening awareness and compliance with the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010.
According to him, the 2025 editions held in Lagos and Enugu recorded strong employer participation and positive feedback, reflecting a growing acceptance among businesses that prevention remains cheaper and more effective than compensation.
“Through SWIP, NECA and NSITF continue to reinforce the message that prevention is better than compensation, and that safety must be embedded in organisational culture,” Okoye added.
Employers recognised at the Abuja ceremony received ambulances, safety equipment, and plaques in recognition of their commitment to workplace safety, a development Okoye said demonstrated that safe workplaces and business success could go hand in hand.
He urged other employers to emulate the awardees and commended the leadership of the NSITF for what he described as consistent engagement in worker protection and prevention advocacy.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye, said SWIP marked a national shift from “reactive compensation to proactive prevention,” stressing that safety and profitability were not in conflict.
“We would rather spend one naira teaching prevention than spend one million naira treating injury. A safe workplace is an efficient workplace, and a protected worker is a productive worker,” Faleye said.
He charged organisations honoured at the ceremony to act as ambassadors of workplace safety, noting that their recognition came with the responsibility to lead other businesses toward global occupational safety standards.
Executive Director, Operations at the NSITF, Mrs. Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, in her presentation titled ‘Employees’ Compensation Act 2010: The Journey So Far,’ said the agency had recorded notable success, particularly in the collection of the one per cent contribution in the last one and a half years.
“We are also seeing some recalcitrant employers beginning to come on board. That is why this programme is important, especially as it had not been held in the last four years,” she said.
“But because we have recorded tremendous success, we felt it was our obligation to reach out and celebrate employers who have been compliant with our activities, making compliance an obligation and a culture within organisations, in line with the Employees’ Compensation Scheme,” she added.
On monitoring compliance with safety protocols and standards, Alli-Macaulay noted that the agency’s Health, Safety and Environment Department conducts periodic Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) audits across companies and organisations.
“They engage employers and other stakeholders to assess how far OSH practices are being implemented within their operations. This is a continuous process and remains a challenge, but we have seen some level of improvement,” she said.
She added that the new management was deploying digital strategies to strengthen monitoring and compliance, describing the transition as “a slow but steady process that is gaining momentum.”
The SWIP 2025 series was held across Lagos, Enugu, and Abuja, bringing together employers, regulators, and other stakeholders to promote safer workplaces and strengthen compliance with labour and safety laws nationwide.
