‎NSITF seeks stronger enforcement of Employees’ Compensation Act to protect workers’ rights

‎ ‎By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ‎ ‎ABUJA — MANAGING Director and Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mr. Oluwaseun Faleye, has urged the judiciary to strengthen the interpretation, adjudication, and enforcement of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010, so that Nigerian workers can fully enjoy the justice and protection the law guarantees. ‎ ‎The Act provides compensation for employees—or their dependants—who suffer death, injury, disability, or occupational disease arising from employment. ‎ ‎Faleye, in his welcome address at the opening of the NSITF 2026 Legal Stakeholders’ Engagement in Abuja, ‎emphasised that legislation alone is not enough; workers need timely dispute resolution, fair hearings, and effective compliance with court orders to turn statutory rights into real benefits.

‎The theme of the two-day event is “Enhancing Judicial Interpretation, Adjudication and Enforcement under the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA), 2010. ” ‎ ‎Mr. Faleye noted that while last year’s engagement focused on strengthening collaboration for the sustainable administration of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, this year’s edition addresses a deeper question: how statutory rights can be translated into practical justice. ‎ ‎Drawing on the experience of everyday Nigerian workers — mothers, construction workers, factory employees and drivers who leave home each day expecting to return he observed that a workplace accident instantly becomes a human crisis with financial, emotional and social consequences. ‎ ‎”Does the law provide a framework for protection? Yes. Does the Employees’ Compensation Act establish a system for compensation for work-related injury, disease, disability or death? Yes. But the existence of a law does not by itself guarantee that…