Employers, Employees and HR professionals. If you haven’t already, please note the following HR policy updates for Nigeria.

In a bid to facilitate an enabling environment for MSMEs in Nigeria, the Business Facilitation Act 2023 (Miscellaneous Provision), also known as Omnibus Act was signed into law on February 14, 2023.

Twenty one ammendments were made in all, and the following two most relate to Human Resources Management:

1. Industrial Training Fund (ITF) levied at 1% of Annual Payroll is now only applicable to organisations with more than 25 employees.

2. National Housing Fund (NHF) contributions set at 2.5% of basic salary are no longer mandatory for private sector organisations. It is still compulsory for public sector employees earning minimum wage and above, however, employees in the private sector may opt out of contributing to the fund.

Personally, I find the ammendments a welcome development for businesses. The NHF has always been in contention for the private sector as many employees contributing found the process of benefiting from it cumbersome.

HR practitioners, Feel free to discuss implications of these updates with your management teams, decide the way forward, make policy updates and make changes to your payroll templates and tools if necessary.

Employees, know the law, know your rights. Please share with your workplaces.

Your thoughts?