Sterling Bank, MTN Nigeria and Business Contracting Limited (BCL) are among leading organizations billed to be awarded at the third edition of Nigeria’s most prestigious independent Occupational Safety, Health and Environment award, Nigeria Safety Award for Excellence Hall of Fame tagged 9jaSAFE Award 2017.
The award event is scheduled for September 15, 2017, at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos, and will be hosted by ace comedian, Seyi Law, like the two previous editions.
9jaSAFE Award is organized by Safety Record Newspaper, publishers of Nigeria’s premier Occupational Safety, Health and Environment newspaper.
The Chief Coordinating Officer, 9jaSAFE Award, Mr. Femi Da-silva said that the award was initiated to honor organizations and individuals that have achieved excellence in the field by the introduction, development and improvement of health, safety and environment initiatives and programs within their work environment and operating communities.
He said, “According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), it is estimated that over 2.3 million fatalities and 300 million accidents causing injuries occur in the workplace globally every year. Better put, one worker dies every 15 seconds in the course of their work and more often than not this worker is the breadwinner of his/her family. These are grim statistics indeed, and Nigeria is not left out.
“We also have had disturbing trends of industrial and domestic fire incidents, building collapses during and after construction, ghastly auto crashes on our highways and others, leading to enormous fatalities and injuries to many more.
“Many of these result not from natural causes but unsafe practices in our environment.”
Da-silva, who is also the Managing Editor of Safety Record Newspaper added, “We believe that adherence to proper corporate safety processes, enhanced government regulations and enforcement, in addition to aggressive safety advocacy, awareness and enlightenment are required to check this unwholesome trend.
“9jaSAFE Award is our humble contribution towards recognizing and rewarding initiatives geared towards promoting workplace safety. The award is to reward those that are doing the right thing in Health, Safety and Environment practice and thereby encouraging others to do same.”
“Supporting the award event for this year are Hybrid Group, UPDC, Ikeja City Mall and others,” he further noted.
The award has been endorsed by various stakeholders in the field in Nigeria – Fire Protection Association of Nigeria (FPAN), Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON), Lagos State Safety Commission, Society for Occupational and Environmental Health Physicians of Nigeria (SOEHPON), World Safety Organisation (WSO) Nigeria Office, and American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Nigeria Chapter.
The award ceremony is not only focused on recognizing organizations in Nigeria that have created a safe workplace environment for their workers and protected their operating environment too, but also to highlight Nigerian individuals who continue to promote safety within their spheres of influence in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labor and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, whose ministry oversees occupational safety and health issues in the country, has confirmed his attendance as a Special Guest of Honor at the event.
Also expected at the event are Sen. Duro Faseyi, who is sponsoring the Occupational Safety and Health Bill, 2016 presently before the National Assembly, and Hon. Iboro Ekanem, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Health Implication of Mounting Telecommunication Masts Close to Buildings.
Previous winners of the 9jaSAFE award in the company categories include FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Benin Electric, Oando Marketing Plc, Heightsafety West Africa, Animal Care Konsult Services, IPI, African Circle Pollution Management, Flying Doctors Emergency Response Unit and others.
Previous individual winners include former Group Head of HSE, NNPC, Dr Rabiu Suleiman; pioneer Director, HSE Department, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Alhaja Nofisat Arogundade; Director, Lagos State Fire Services, Mr Rasaq Fadipe; SHE Manager, MTN Nigeria, Mr Fyneray Mbata, among others.
The 9jaSAFE Award 2017 process commenced with a joint press statement with the Lagos State Safety Commission on April 10, 2017. Thereafter, nomination of awardees was thrown open to the general public between April and June 2017.
A five-man Panel of Judges comprising carefully-selected eminent safety professionals and regulators was then constituted to select winners as per set criteria from the pool of hundreds of nominations across the country.
Award winners will be announced at the award event.