Ngige flays exclusion of Labour Ministry in Draft Social Protection Policy process

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has expressed displeasure over the exclusion of his ministry in the drafting processes of the Draft National Social Protection Policy.

The Minister made this known over the weekend in his office at a meeting with the delegation of the United Nations, key stakeholder Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to discuss the Draft National Social Protection Policy and the Draft Harmonised Social Protection Coordination Bill.

Ngige had convened the meeting based on a request by the Director of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ms. Vanessa Phala.

Addressing the meeting, the Labour Minister noted that it was improper to designate the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning, and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs as chairman and co-chairman in the draft policy, without any mention of the Labour Ministry which should drive social security.

“There is no way you can do social security in a country without the Labour Ministry. The force or gravitas you are using comes from labour all through. Even if it runs through 10 ministries, it is the labour component that drives the entire thing”, he said.

Furthermore, the Minister said that Nigeria has a law on social protection, operational since 2010, known as Employee Compensation Act (ECA) 2010 that replaced the old Workmen Compensation.

He referenced that ECA established the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) by which employers make contributions for workers both in the public and private sector to cover them for injuries sustained in the course of work.

“The Labour Ministry developed all the conventions and has all the communications. We know when it is done properly and when it is not done properly. It is one government but if we are doing a policy, we should do a policy that will outstay us. We don’t do it because of me or whoever. Policies are policies and they are going to last.” Ngige, added.

Also, he stated that the thematic areas for social protection covered under convention 102 of the ILO goes into even medical care, old age benefits, unemployment benefits, compensation for injury at work, disability and even maternity to cover women who are bearing children and their children

He stressed the need to pay attention to the informal sector in putting up a policy on social protection, and even going into the bill. He said social protection should be made beneficial to people in villages, wards, local governments and states.

Earlier, Director of Social Development, Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning, Sanjo Faniran said there was an arrangement by the UN system that is expected to enable Nigeria to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs by 2030.

“It is on the basis that there was a joint fund in support of government of Nigeria for the revision of the National Social Protection Policy and also support to Social Protection Policy and programmes across MDAs in Nigeria both at the Federal and sub-national levels of government.”

“It is on that basis that we commenced the revision of the National Social Protection Policy that implementation started in 2017 and expired in 2020 but because of COVID-19, we did not start revision on time. So, the revision did not commence until August 27, 2020 when the Multi-sectoral Technical Working Committee was constituted by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning who is also the chair of the technical working group, cutting across 36 key stakeholder MDAs including development partners who played a key role in the implementation process.”

He added that they came to intimate the minister on the step to harmonise all the laws supporting social protection in the country.

Meanwhile, Chief of Social Policy, UNICEF, Hamidou Poufon commended the Ministry of Labour for its contributions to the bill on Social Protection and developing financial mechanisms to it in the country.

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