The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has commended Africa, especially Nigeria, for stepping up its social protection policy.

Cynthia Samuel-Olajuwon, the ILO regional director for Africa, gave the commendation while speaking with journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.

She said one of the significant achievements of the ILO in Africa has been in the area of social protection.

“Social protection in Africa as of 2019, 2020, when I had the privilege of being in Nigeria for the launch of the report of ‘The Global Social Protection Report’, was 17.2 or 17.4per cent, the lowest in the continent,” Ms Samuel-Olajuwon. “This is even in terms of statistics; we only have statistics for 17 countries.”

She said the ILO developed strategies to promote social protection in Africa to lift people out of poverty and achieve sustainable development goals.

“This is with the view and the goal, yes, ambitious goal of doubling the figure and moving from 17 to 40 per cent by 2025,” Ms Samuel-Olajuwon explained.

She added, “Just a few years from now, since that time, what have we done? The number of countries for which we have data, which was 17 in 2019, has increased to 37.”

Ms Samuel-Olajuwon also said she hoped that by the end of the year’s survey, the countries participating would have reached 54.

“Particularly, for example, Nigeria has already started moving the needle. Their health insurance policy has been adopted in terms of every data,” she added.

The regional director also listed other key things the ILO prioritised, including addressing informality and creating decent work in rural areas and labour protection issues around skills development.

Ms Samuel-Olajuwon said others were to see how the ILO can use technological pathways to facilitate skills and enterprise development in Just Transitions by looking at the entire gamut of standards.

She added that this was both in terms of ratification and implementation, with a special emphasis on women and child labour issues.

Ms Samuel-Olajuwon, while speaking on Nigeria being elected as the chair of the governing body of the organisation, said the election was in recognition of the capacity of Africa.

She described the time of Nigeria’s leadership at the ILO as apt, “especially after the very important 111th conference that was recently concluded.”

(NAN)