NSITF registration and the certificate of compliance
How a Nigerian employer registers on NSITF's Employer Self-Service Portal, files monthly returns, pays the 1% contribution and keeps its certificate.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Many Nigerian employers first think about NSITF when someone asks for proof of it: a tender document wants a certificate of compliance, a large customer's vendor form asks for one, or a worker is injured and the question of cover comes up. By then it is too late to do things in order.
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund runs the Employees Compensation Scheme, and almost everything an employer does with it now happens on one online portal. This article walks through registering there, keeping up the monthly returns and payments, holding on to the certificate, and how Achekam's payroll prepares the figures you take to the portal.
One portal for almost everything
NSITF says employer registration, monthly contributions, compliance certificate fees and inspection liability payments are all paid through its Employer Self-Service Portal at ecsonline.nsitf.gov.ng.
According to NSITF, employers use the portal to register, manage monthly contributions and meet their obligations under the Employees' Compensation Act, 2010. The features it lists include employer onboarding, payroll integration, the certificate of compliance, OSH and HSE workplace audits, bulk employee upload, monthly returns and automated reminders.
In other words, the portal is not just a payment screen. It holds your employer profile, your list of workers, your monthly returns and your certificate. Whoever manages it for the business needs proper access, and a second person should know how to get in.
Onboarding and the one-time fee
NSITF charges a one-time employer onboarding fee for registration under the Employees Compensation Scheme. Its services page does not state the amount, so check it on the portal when you register rather than relying on a figure from someone else's experience.
Have the business's registration papers and a current staff list to hand before you begin, so the session is not abandoned halfway while someone hunts for a document. Keep a copy of every confirmation the portal produces, starting with the onboarding receipt.
Monthly returns and the bulk upload
NSITF says every registered employer must remit a monthly Employees Compensation Scheme contribution of 1% of its total monthly payroll, and that this contribution is employer-funded. The services page is undated and does not cite the section of the Act, so treat the rate as correct at the time of writing and confirm it on the portal.
Employer-funded means exactly that: nothing is deducted from staff pay for NSITF. It is a cost to the business on top of salaries.
The portal handles monthly returns and a bulk employee upload. The bulk upload is what saves time for an employer with more than a handful of staff, because it lets you send the whole list at once rather than keying people in one by one. It also means the list you upload has to be accurate: names, identifiers and pay that match your payroll.
The certificate of compliance
The certificate of compliance is issued through the portal, and NSITF lists compliance certificate fees among the payments made there. Its value comes from what sits behind it: registration, regular monthly returns and contributions.
Treat the certificate as a document you renew by behaviour rather than by application. If returns and payments lapse, getting a certificate when a contract depends on it becomes a scramble. Note when your current certificate was issued, file it where tender and procurement staff can find it, and check its status well before you need it.
What the scheme does for your workers
NSITF says the Employees Compensation Scheme provides compensation for workplace injury, occupational disease, disability and death regardless of fault. It also says every registered Nigerian worker is entitled to protection under the scheme at no cost to the worker.
That is worth telling staff plainly, especially in physical jobs. Registration is not just a box ticked for a tender; it is what stands behind a worker who is hurt on the job.
NSITF describes the scheme, the portal and the contribution on its services page.
The NSITF schedule in Achekam
From approved pay runs, Achekam prepares the Nigerian monthly schedules, including one for NSITF, alongside PAYE per State, pension per pension fund administrator and NHF. The NSITF schedule gives you the payroll figure the 1% applies to, from a run that has already been approved.
Two limits shape what you do with it:
- Format. Nigerian payroll schedules download only as Achekam's own CSV layout and a PDF, not in the authority's upload template. If the portal's bulk upload expects its own file layout, someone has to move the data into it.
- Filing and paying. Achekam does not file or pay Nigerian payroll returns. A person files and pays on the portal and records the filing with the reference it gave, and a second person confirms each payment. A schedule is finalised by someone other than the person who prepared it.
Each month, in order
- Approve the month's pay run.
- Produce the NSITF schedule and check its payroll total.
- Prepare the portal's monthly return, using the bulk upload where it suits.
- Pay the contribution through the portal.
- Record the filing in Achekam with the portal's reference.
- Have a second person confirm the payment against the schedule.
Recording each monthly payment
The record in Achekam is what lets you prove continuity later. When a procurement officer asks whether you have been contributing every month, you want twelve recorded payments with portal references, each confirmed by a second person, not a search through bank statements.
How NSITF sits alongside the ITF levy is explained in NSITF and ITF: what Nigerian employers pay. If you are hiring for the first time, put NSITF registration on the first-employee checklist before the first payday, not after it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
