The NSITF (Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund) runs the Employees' Compensation Scheme, insurance that pays employees or their families if they're injured, disabled or killed in the course of work. Employers fund it with 1% of monthly payroll.
The most important thing to understand: NSITF is an employer cost, not an employee deduction. Nothing comes out of any worker's salary for it. If you see "NSITF" deducted on a payslip, something is wrong.
The scheme (often called ECS, for Employees' Compensation Scheme) works like this: you register your business with NSITF, then remit 1% of your total monthly payroll by the 16th of the following month. In return, if an employee suffers a workplace accident or occupational disease, the fund, not your business directly, pays the compensation: medical costs, disability benefits, or death benefits to dependants.
Nigerian example: a Port Harcourt logistics company has 10 staff and a total monthly payroll of ₦2,500,000. Its NSITF contribution is 1% = ₦25,000 a month, paid by the company on top of salaries. When one of its drivers is injured on a delivery run, the compensation claim goes through NSITF rather than becoming a lawsuit against the company.
That's really the pitch: 1% of payroll buys you a statutory shield against the cost of workplace accidents. It also keeps you compliant, NSITF registration is commonly requested in due diligence and government tenders.
See where NSITF fits among everything else you remit in statutory deductions in Nigeria, and compare it with the ITF levy.