The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has called for stronger legal enforcement of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) to ensure improved workers’ welfare and workplace safety across the country.
Managing Director and Chief Executive of NSITF, Barrister Oluwaseun Faleye, made the call at the annual conference of the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN) held in Abuja.
Faleye, who was represented by the Abuja Regional Manager, Mrs. Bridget Ashang, urged a shift from persuasion to enforcement, stressing the need for a review of the ECA to strengthen compliance mechanisms and increase penalties for defaulting employers.
In a paper titled “Employees’ Compensation Enforcement: Issues and Challenges in the Oil and Gas Industry,” Faleye noted that operations in the oil and gas sector are capital-intensive, complex, and hazardous — requiring a robust and enforceable compensation framework as both a statutory obligation and a moral duty.
He described the Employees’ Compensation Act 2010 as “a bold and visionary step” by the Federal Government to safeguard Nigerian workers from occupational hazards, replacing the old Workmen’s Compensation regime with a no-fault, employer-funded social insurance system that serves as a safety net against deprivation and income insecurity.
Faleye emphasised that this mandate is particularly critical in the oil and gas industry, Nigeria’s economic mainstay, where risks are high and the consequences of neglect could be devastating.
Highlighting key challenges, he identified non-compliance and evasion, outsourcing and casualisation of workers, low awareness, weak sanctions, and poor safety culture as major impediments to effective enforcement.
To address these issues, Faleye said NSITF has implemented several reforms, including periodic inspection of employers’ records, digitalisation of registration and remittance, simplification of claims and compensation procedures, enhanced stakeholder engagement, inter-agency collaboration, and improved workplace health and safety measures.
He called for a review of the ECA enforcement provisions to raise penalties for non-compliance and recommended that participation in the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) be made a precondition for business licensing or renewal.
Faleye also advocated for the establishment of a unified labour data system for effective monitoring and the empowerment of labour inspectors through training and logistics to access even remote installations. He further proposed naming and shaming defaulting employers as a deterrent measure.
The ECA 2010 established the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) and mandated the NSITF to provide fair and adequate compensation, rehabilitation, and reorientation for workers or their dependents who suffer injuries, diseases, disabilities, or death in the course of employment. Employers are required to contribute one percent of their employees’ salaries to fund the scheme.
