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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mr Oluwaseun Faleye, has warned that Nigerian businesses cannot achieve sustainable growth at the expense of workers’ safety, dignity and welfare.
Faleye said the protection of workers must remain central to Nigeria’s enterprise development agenda, stressing that businesses could only become productive, resilient and globally competitive when their workforce was adequately protected.
He stated this on Monday in his goodwill message at the Grow Nigerian Conference 2026, with the theme, “The Next Frontier for Innovation, Policy and Market Access,” held at the Ecobank Pan African Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
According to a statement from NSITF, the three-day conference, organised by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), brought together representatives of the Federal Government, development partners, industry leaders and entrepreneurs.
Faleye, who commended SMEDAN for sustaining the platform, said the conference theme was timely as Nigeria needed to move beyond encouraging business start-ups to creating an environment where enterprises could survive, expand, compete and prosper.
He identified high energy costs, inflation, exchange rate pressures, limited access to affordable financing, inadequate infrastructure and logistics challenges as some of the difficulties confronting Nigerian businesses.
He, however, said enterprise development must go beyond addressing the challenges facing business owners to considering the welfare of the people whose skills and labour sustain their operations.
“Behind every successful enterprise are people whose skills, commitment and labour sustain its operations. A business cannot truly be considered sustainable if its economic success is achieved at the expense of the safety, dignity and wellbeing of its workforce,” he said.
The NSITF boss explained that the Fund administers the Employees’ Compensation Scheme under the Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010, which provides compensation, medical support, rehabilitation and income replacement to workers who suffer work-related injuries, diseases, disability or death.
He clarified that the scheme is funded through employers’ contributions of one per cent of their total monthly payroll and does not involve deductions from employees’ salaries.
According to him, protecting workers should not be viewed as an additional burden on businesses but as an investment in productivity and long-term sustainability.
“Protecting workers is also good for business. A safe and protected workforce is more productive, motivated and committed. Employee protection should not be viewed as a burden, but as an investment in long-term sustainability,” he said.
Faleye expressed concern over the low awareness of the scheme among small businesses, calling for increased public education, simplified processes and stronger institutional collaboration to improve enrolment and compliance.
He also noted that the changing nature of work, particularly through digital platforms, e-commerce and logistics services, had created the need to extend social protection to emerging categories of workers.
He said Nigeria must ensure that innovation did not produce economically productive but socially unprotected workers.
To address the gap, Faleye proposed a stronger partnership between the NSITF and SMEDAN, noting that both agencies had complementary mandates in promoting enterprise development and workers’ welfare.
He suggested joint awareness programmes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), integration of occupational safety into entrepreneurship training, engagement with business associations and the provision of accessible channels for registration and compliance support.
He further called for a whole-of-economy approach involving financial institutions, government agencies, development partners and entrepreneurs to strengthen enterprise development.
Faleye urged stakeholders to ensure that the proposed National MSME Policy incorporated decent work, occupational safety and social protection as essential components of business growth.
He reaffirmed the NSITF’s commitment to supporting Nigerian enterprises through effective administration of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme and the promotion of safer workplaces.
“Let us grow Nigerian businesses, protect Nigerian workers and build a prosperous, productive and globally competitive Nigeria,” he said.
