Senate Moves to Regulate Nigeria’s Informal Workforce with New Employment Bill, Amid Exploitation Concerns
The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, May 21, engaged in a heated debate over a proposed bill that seeks to regulate employment in the informal sector by empowering licensed private employment agencies.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Musa Sani, aims to grant the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) the authority to license, supervise, and regulate private recruitment agencies responsible for hiring, managing social security, and collecting employee data for informal sector workers—including domestic staff, apprentices, and interns.
Senator Musa described the informal sector as an unregulated, labour-heavy part of the economy, made up largely of small businesses dependent on family labour and informal training systems. He raised concerns about widespread labour rights violations, including lack of fair wages, unsafe work conditions, absence of training, and denial of collective bargaining.
“There is a clear ‘decent work deficit’ in Nigeria’s informal economy,” Musa said. “This bill is designed to promote workers’ rights, employment protections, and social dialogue, in line with international labour standards.”
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While some senators welcomed the bill as a necessary step toward formalising and protecting millions of vulnerable informal workers, others sounded alarm bells.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), strongly opposed the bill in its current form. He warned that it could legitimise exploitation, noting that recruitment agencies often charge applicants ₦150,000 to ₦200,000 in fees, while offering monthly salaries as low as ₦40,000.
“Giving NDE power to license these agencies could entrench a broken system and shift the directorate from its core mission of skills training to profit-driven labour outsourcing,” Oshiomhole cautioned.
Senator Diket Plang, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity, added that a similar bill focusing on domestic workers had already passed public hearing and was due for third reading. He argued that the new proposal might be redundant and better suited as an amendment to existing labour laws or the NDE Act.
“This task already falls under the Federal Ministry of Labour,” Plang noted, urging caution against duplicating mandates.
Despite the divisions, the bill passed its second reading and was forwarded to the Committee on Employment, Labour, and Productivity for further legislative scrutiny.
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