ABSTRACT In Nigeria, a significant number of the active labour force exists within the informal economy. For these workers, decent work remains elusive. They are mostly unprotected by existing legal framework and lack basic work rights. One of such right is access to social protection. This lack of access to ‘social protection’, especially as it relates to their means of livelihood, results in exclusion and marginalisation, and violates the principles of social justice. However, the high financial and structural costs of providing the basic forms of social protection inhibits the Nigerian government from extending social protection to informal workers, even though they constitute the larger percentage of the national workforce. This therefore necessitates an innovative solution that extends social protection to informal workers, and at the same time is independent of the capacity limitations of the government. Based on a desktop research methodology, this article finds that Esusu cooperatives – an informal cooperative system popular among informal workers– represents an existing and functional structure through which social protection can be extended to Nigerian informal workers. Consequently, it is recommended that the ‘Esusu Cooperative system’ should be adopted and restructured as a means of extending social protection to informal workers.

中文翻译：

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“ Esusu合作社”作为将社会保护扩展到尼日利亚非正规经济的一种手段

摘要在尼日利亚，非正规经济中存在大量活跃的劳动力。对于这些工人，体面的工作仍然难以捉摸。他们大多不受现有法律框架的保护，缺乏基本的工作权利。其中一项权利是获得社会保护。缺乏获得“社会保护”的机会，特别是与他们的谋生手段有关，导致排斥和边缘化，并违反了社会正义原则。但是，提供基本社会保护形式的高昂财务和结构成本阻碍了尼日利亚政府将社会保护范围扩大到非正规工人，即使它们在全国劳动力中所占的比例较高。因此，这就需要一种创新的解决方案，将社会保护扩展到非正式工人，同时与政府的能力限制无关。基于桌面研究方法，本文发现Esusu合作社（一种受到非正式工人欢迎的非正式合作社系统）代表了一种现有的功能结构，通过该结构可以将社会保护扩展到尼日利亚的非正式工人。因此，建议采用和重组“ Esusu合作社制度”，作为将社会保护扩展到非正式工人的手段。本文发现，Esusu合作社（一种在非正式工人中很受欢迎的非正式合作社系统）代表了一种现有的功能结构，通过这种结构，社会保护可以扩展到尼日利亚的非正式工人。因此，建议采用和重组“ Esusu合作社制度”，作为将社会保护扩展到非正式工人的手段。本文发现，Esusu合作社（一种在非正式工人中很受欢迎的非正式合作社系统）代表了一种现有的功能结构，通过这种结构，社会保护可以扩展到尼日利亚的非正式工人。因此，建议采用和重组“ Esusu合作社制度”，作为将社会保护扩展到非正式工人的手段。