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By Emmanuel Ulayi
The welfare of Nigerian workers is at the heart of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF’s Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS). Through ECS, the NSITF is ushering in a new lease of life for the Nigerian workers in terms of welfare.Call it a breath of fresh air and you won’t be wrong.
NSTIF has succeeded in instilling Nigerians’ confidence in the Fund by building strong institutional trust through deliberate and concerted efforts. One such initiative is the repackaging and aggressive promotion of ECS in the public sector, along with inter-agency engagement, to give the scheme the visibility it needs. Interestingly, the NSTIF is currently taking the scheme to the doorsteps of state governors and they are keying into it.
No doubt, the idea of engaging governors directly as a means of marketing the ECS has started yielding positive results. So far, the Fund, through its Managing Director, Barrister Oluwaseun Falaye, has been able to take the ECS campaign to least three governors from three geopolitical zones, and the responses have been amazing.
In the North East, the NSTIF team led by Falaye had a constructive engagement with the Governor of Taraba State, Agbu Kefas. Both men agreed to partner on the ECS. While meeting the governor at the Government House in Jalingo, the NSITF team called for deeper institutional collaboration between the Fund and the Taraba State to strengthen the ECS.
Speaking, Falaye told Governor Kefas that the engagement was far from ceremonial, describing it as part of a deliberate strategy to build structured partnerships with progressive state governments committed to workers’ welfare and institutional sustainability.
Faleye emphasized that the Employees’ Compensation Scheme is not merely a statutory obligation but a critical social protection instrument that guarantees dignity for workers and stability for employers.
Essentially, when a worker is injured, disabled, or loses his life in the course of duty, the response of government defines public trust and reinforces confidence in leadership thus expanding ECS coverage aligns directly with the governor’s welfare-driven agenda for Taraba workers.
The NSITF boss stressed the need to move beyond dialogue to measurable outcomes and proposed practical steps that would expand ECS compliance across state MDAs, intensify sensitization of major employers and contractors operating in Taraba, and strengthen workplace safety and compensation awareness across the state.
To ensure structure and accountability, Faleye suggested a focal ministry or designated official to coordinate engagement with the NSITF. The Fund has already established an internal Strategic Inter-Agency Coordination (SIAC) framework to track timelines and deliverables arising from such engagements.
Faleye highlighted the mutual benefits of strengthened ECS coverage, noting that it would protect workers, reduce employers’ litigation exposure, promote industrial harmony, and reinforce the administration’s commitment to structured social protection.
In a move aimed at institutionalizing compliance, the NSITF is of the view that integration of the ECS Compliance Certificate into the states’ public procurement and contracting processes will be a huge plus for workers.
Requiring evidence of NSITF compliance as part of documentation for contract bidding, pre-qualification for state projects, contractor registration and renewal, and public-private partnership engagements would not create new obligations but rather reinforce existing statutory requirements.
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This would ensure that companies benefiting from public funds are also compliant in protecting their workers.
As a measure of acceptance of the scheme Governor Kefas is now an Ambassador for the Advocacy of ECS in Taraba State in particular, and the Northeast in general.
To key Taraba workers into ECS, Kefas has set up a high-powered committee to interface with NSITF to ensure the state is ECS-compliant especially with the recent payment of N5 billion to pensioners in the state.
In the South South, Barrister the NSTIF took the ECS campaign to the Governor of Rivers state, Sir Siminilayi Fubara, who applauded the scheme, declaring that the Fund was projecting the administration of President Bola Tinubu positively, and was indeed a gift to the Nigerian workers.
Falaye used the opportunity of NSTIF’s presence in Rivers State to present cheques to beneficiaries under the ECS and solicit the governor’s support for the Scheme.
NSTIF believes that River State keying into the scheme will be a trailblazer and the leading light of the ECS in the South-South Region.
Notedly, NSITF is mandated by law to implement the ECS in the case of death, injury, or diseases that may occur in the course of work in addition to offering a lot of economic benefits to the States and their workforce.
The Scheme builds resilience in the workforce ecosystem, thereby contributing to economic productivity.
This explains why Governor Fubara readily embraced the scheme for Rivers workers, expressing optimism that it would go a long way to improve the wellbeing of workers in the state.
In the South West, specifically Lagos, the NSITF and the State government have agreed to align on the ECS. Falaye said the visit was to establish a clear and structured pathway for the implementation of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme in the State: To establish a coordination structure between Lagos State and NSITF; and to agree on immediate next steps for a seamless onboarding process.
There is indeed, no doubt that NSTIF’s sustained ECS advocacy has gained traction, and its effectiveness spreading like wildfire as states are now yearning for a visit from the Fund to key into the scheme.
• Ulayi, PhD, is Principal Manager, Corporate Communications Department, NSITF
