AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja
The Managing Director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Barrister Olawaseun Faleye Tuesday, advocated for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence or AI and Digitalization in ensuring workers’ safety in Nigeria.
Speaking at the Occupational Safety and Health Forum in commemoration of the World Day of Safety and Health, organized by the Fund in Abuja, Faleye advised that in embracing technology, care should be taken not to forget the core things that drive safety and health in the workplace.
Faleye stated that AI would introduce innovations in workplace safety with prediction, prevention and protection revolutionised, which will in turn, promote safety and health in the workplace.
The Managing Director emphasized the need for continuous learning and adaptation,
Investing in training and education to ensure workers are proficient in utilising tools.
Faleye further advocated the need for ensuring appropriate compliance ethics and proper safeguards are put in place. He called for reaffirmation “of our commitment to workers’ safety.
Faleye thanked NECA for its continued support and commended the organising team for putting in their best. He said the topic was timely and pivotal in reshaping safety in workplaces.
Earlier, while welcoming participants to the event, the Executive Director Operations of NSITF, Mrs Mojisolaoluwa Alli-Macaulay, said it was a gathering of experts, practitioners and stakeholders to brainstorm on the best practices and challenges in the adoption of AI and Digitalization for safety and workers’ well-being.
She further summed up the aim as equipping OSH professionals with the required knowledge and skills to tap into AI and Digitalization, as well as tackle its challenges for a safer and healthier workplace in Nigeria.
In his goodwill message, Director General NECA, Mr Smart Oyerinde, lamented that the workplace environment in Nigeria is not in the best of state.
According to him, the event was an opportunity to restate the commitment to workers’ safety and deepen partnership among stakeholders.
In his opinion, AI has come to stay and is shaping things and how we respond to safety in the workplace. The Director General reinstated NECA’s commitment to a safer and healthier work environment for Nigerian workers, revealing ongoing free training in this regard.
Also in a goodwill message, David ldris Zakarias, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Safety Standard, lauded the NSITF Managing Director for his courage and doggedness in improving the Fund.
He posited that AI had the potential to transform the way we prevent, monitor and respond to hazards.
The Committee Chairman advocated a worker centred approach saying, “Behind every tool and innovation are humans. An innovation can only be measured in the form of the lives it actually protects.”
He affirmed that the House remained steadfast in “our collective pursuit of safety in the workplace”.
The forum which has the theme, Revolutionising Health and Safety: The Role of AI and Digitalization at Work, was put together by the HSE Department of the Fund, to explore the issues around the introduction of AI and Digitalization and their roles in ensuring workers safety and health.
The event had in attendance members of the National Assembly, including the representatives of the Senate Committee Chairman and the Clerk of the House Committee.
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