Poor Funding Hampering Safety In Workplace – Ministry

Low budgetary allocation and inadequate funding of the activities of the Occupational Safety and Health Department, Ministry of Labour and Employment have been identified as factors hampering effective implementation of safety and health in the workplace in Nigeria.

This was brought to the fore at a workshop organised to sensitise journalists in Abuja on “Effective Reportage on the Promotion of Safety and Health in the Workplace”.

With the mandate of safeguarding and promoting the safety, health and wellbeing of workers in their various workplaces, the department was created in 1955 to prevent work-related accidents, injuries, diseases, ill-health and deaths, and enhance productivity levels amongst the nation’s workforce.

The permanent secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju noted that the under-reportage of the workings of the departments mandated to drive safety and health in the workplace has created a vacuum of public knowledge with regards to promoting decent work and ensuring enforcement and compliance to labour standards for safety and wellbeing of workers.

She tasked journalists to complement government efforts in promoting a safe and healthy environment in the workplace through comprehensive and effective reportage of the ministry’s programmes and activities in the area.