Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Oluwaseun Faleye has said retirement planning starts early and cannot be left to the eleventh hour, while adding that “Individual savers can’t shoulder the burden alone”.
Faleye argued that a credible retirement hinges on protections built during a worker’s career—health, safety, compensation for injury or death, and support for dependents, not just pensions and personal savings.
Speaking at the 2026 National Pre-Retirement Summit in Abuja, under the theme “Own Your Retirement: From Planning to Action,” Faleye framed social protection as the gap between what the law promises and what citizens experience.
“When we speak about retirement, we must begin much earlier than the point at which work ends,” he said, adding that retirement security is shaped by occupational risks, health, earning-capacity protection and what happens to families when a breadwinner is lost.
He stressed that while pensions and savings are indispensable, they don’t tell the whole story: a worker who stays healthy and protected follows a different path into old age than one who suffers a disabling injury or premature death without adequate coverage.
The Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS), administered by NSITF, sits at the center of that protection, covering employment-related injury, occupational disease, disability and death, and providing compensation, survivor benefits, medical care, rehabilitation and return-to-work support, Faleye said.
As of July 2026, more than 7.6 million workers were enrolled in the scheme; that figure has since risen to over 7.8 million, Faleye added.
He said the fund is shifting from one-off registration drives to sustained participation and compliance through partnerships with federal institutions, state governments, regulators, employers and organizations in the informal economy.
A key milestone has been the onboarding of Treasury-funded federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Within less than four months of integration, claims payments began, with the first batch of five MDA beneficiaries paid on Aug. 4, 2026, Faleye added.
“This is turning Federal Civil Service protection into a lived reality,” he said.
Registration, however, isn’t protection, Faleye warned. Compliance must translate into real benefits by linking registration and assessment to contributions, accurate worker data, claims processing and timely payment.
The average claims turnaround has improved to 10 days from 14 days, he disclosed, with the next priorities deepening coverage, strengthening compliance and improving inter-agency coordination.
He also underscored the need to keep families visible in social-protection design.
When a worker dies in an employment-related incident, survivors’ and dependents’ benefits become critical, and the system must be “visible at the point of vulnerability,” with claims administration, documentation, communication and referrals designed around the beneficiary’s experience.
Faleye’s message balanced personal responsibility with institutional duty: workers should plan and understand their entitlements, but they can’t individually insure against employer noncompliance or build a claims system on their own.
“A worker can plan for retirement only when the system is credible enough to plan with,” he said.
