Millions of Nigerian workers risk being left without a safety net as artificial intelligence, automation and the gig economy change how people earn a living, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund has warned.
The caution came from the Fund’s Managing Director, Oluwaseun Faleye, in a keynote address at the annual workshop of the Labour Writers’ Association of Nigeria (LAWAN) in Lagos. His speech was delivered on his behalf by the Deputy General Manager and Head of Corporate Affairs, Alexandra Mede.
Faleye said the rapid spread of digital platforms, remote work and automation is producing a class of people who are economically active but fall outside the country’s established social protection structures. He questioned how the welfare of workers hired through digital platforms could be guaranteed when their employment no longer follows conventional patterns, and how protection could reach those whose working arrangements keep shifting.
He traced the main weaknesses in the present system to three problems: the exclusion of workers outside formal employment, the failure to bring enough employers into the net, and low awareness of the protections that already exist. Closing those gaps, he argued, will take more than fresh legislation. It will require reliable data, stronger compliance, efficient institutions and steady cooperation between government, employers and organised labour.
The warning lands on fertile ground. Official labour figures put informal employment at more than 90 per cent of all jobs in Nigeria, a category that stretches from traders and artisans to drivers and a fast-growing population of online and platform workers. Most of them operate with no formal contract, no pension and no cover against injury or the sudden loss of an income.
At the centre of the Fund’s mandate is the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, created under the Employees’ Compensation Act of 2010. Under the scheme, employers pay one per cent of their monthly payroll into a central fund that compensates workers for workplace injuries, occupational diseases, disability or death, regardless of who was at fault. Faleye described it as a social compact between employers, workers and society, and said its value depends on awareness, compliance and efficient administration.
He urged employers to treat workers’ protection as a mark of responsible corporate citizenship rather than a statutory burden, arguing that it strengthens productivity, staff confidence and the long-term stability of a business. He also pressed the agencies that run social protection programmes to become more transparent and easier for ordinary people to deal with. “At its heart, social security is about people,” he said.
Turning to the journalists in the room, Faleye challenged labour reporters to look beyond strikes and industrial disputes and help workers understand their rights and employers grasp their obligations. He encouraged them to interrogate policy, report accurately and put complex social security questions into plain language.
On the political transition ahead of the 2027 elections, he said the duty to protect workers must hold firm regardless of which party is in power. He called for social security institutions accountable and durable enough to serve workers across successive administrations.
Looking ahead, Faleye named platform and informal-sector workers, occupational disease, automation and artificial intelligence as the pressures the system must now prepare for. Protection, he said, should not wait until a worker has already been harmed. It should be “a system of preparedness and protection that should exist before the risk occurs.”