The President of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON), Stephen Udeze, has called for stricter sanctions against organisations that continue to employ unqualified individuals as safety officers across workplaces in the country.
Udeze, speaking with journalists in Lagos on Thursday on the sidelines of the ISPON membership induction, lamented that some companies continued to engage quacks as safety officers in violation of the ISPON Act 2014 (Act No. 2).
He explained that the ISPON Act 2014 already provided penalties for individuals and corporate bodies that violated professional safety standards in Nigeria, noting that the institute was not proposing new punitive measures, but seeking full enforcement of the existing legal provisions.
According to him, the Act stipulates that any individual practising as a safety professional without being duly registered with ISPON risks a N100,000 fine or six months’ imprisonment, or both.
For companies, he explained that the law imposes a minimum fine of N500,000 or a six-month jail term for their managing directors if they employ unqualified safety personnel.
Udeze lamented that despite the clarity of the law, many organisations continued to undermine safety regulations by hiring unregistered practitioners, thereby endangering lives and workplace operations.
He explained that although the Act was enacted in 2014, prolonged internal crises within the institute stalled its full implementation until 2024.
“Immediately the Act was passed, the institute was plunged into crisis. It was only on 19 October 2024 that we achieved unification, and I emerged as the unified president. Now, we are driving the enforcement of the ISPON Act with renewed vigour,” he said.
Besides, he emphasised that the National Assembly had a constitutional role to protect the act as the legislation originated from the parliament.
He maintained that while ISPON had set up a taskforce to monitor compliance, lawmakers also carry out oversight visits to companies to verify adherence to safety laws.
The ISPON President further appealed to media organisations to support the institute’s advocacy efforts, noting that awareness creation was often hampered by high publicity costs.
ISPON Chairman, Lagos Chapter, Olusola Ogunleye, said that the institute was working with different trade organisations like the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to ensure the exit of quacks from the system through the registration and certification of their members.
He reiterated that any organisation that still retains an unregistered safety person should also be ready to face the consequences.
On the induction of over 105 members and the upgrade of 10 others on the day, Ogunleye said the institute was empowering emerging professionals to work with the law and backing them up with professional conduct.
He said, “Many of them have undergone our training. So, what we are doing is throwing capacity into the industries, throwing capacity into the workplaces, so that these professionals can bring to bear their weight of training and experience to transform workplaces in Nigeria in terms of health, safety and environment.
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You will not be a safety professional and use yesterday’s knowledge. They must remain current, they must remain ahead of information and they must seek their information, they must respect information and they must use information to promote health and the well-being of their workers.”
