Director of Social and Labour Affairs at NECA Nigeria, speaks about the importance of social protection
Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association (NECA) representative highlights the vital role of social protection in eliminating child labour. Collaboration among employers, government, and communities is key to safeguarding children.
18 April 2025
Ms. Adenike Adebayo-Ajala, Director of Social and Labour Affairs at NECA Nigeria : “Social protection is very important to us as employers. We believe that a worker who is protected will be able to give their best to the workplace. They are not distracted, because they know that all the tenets needed to ensure decent work will be put in place by employers.
As employers, we work together with trade unions and the Federal Ministry of Labour to ensure that employers comply with the legal tenets established for social protection. It is also very important for the community to come together and support both employers and workers, so that we can put in place social protection mechanisms for children.
This is a joint effort. Anything concerning the elimination of child labour cannot be done by one person alone. It cannot be done by the employer alone, nor by the government alone, and certainly not by workers alone. We need the community.
We need the community to come together with government, employers, and workers to implement all the necessary social protection measures that ensure children are not exploited and are able to attend school.
It takes a village to raise a child! And that is why we need the community to be part of this joint effort to eliminate child labour in the workplace—especially in the cocoa and gold sectors.
We, as NECA, will continue to work with ACCEL Africa in our shared mission to eliminate child labour in the workplace."