Pitch a Workplace Mental Health Policy for a Nigerian SME

Nigeria's formal workforce is under sustained psychological pressure. Long commutes in cities like Lagos and Abuja, job insecurity, fuel and cost-of-living shocks, and a culture that equates visible stress with weakness all compound each other. Large multinationals have started introducing employee assistance programmes. SMEs, which employ the majority of Nigerian workers in the formal sector, have been left entirely out of that conversation. SME owners are not hostile to staff wellbeing; they are resource-constrained and unconvinced that mental health investment pays off. Any policy pitched to them needs to be cheap to implement, low on paperwork, and framed around productivity and retention rather than clinical outcomes. The person you are designing for runs a logistics company in Ikeja, or an accounting firm in Port Harcourt, and has never used the words 'psychological safety' in a business context. Your deliverable has two parts. First, a two-page mental health policy document suitable for an SME: it should cover manager responsibilities, a basic employee assistance pathway (even if that pathway is just a vetted list of affordable therapists and crisis lines), time-off provisions for mental health, and a non-discrimination clause. Second, a 10-slide pitch deck aimed at the business owner, making the economic case for adopting the policy. Ground the pitch in data on absenteeism, staff turnover, or productivity where you can find it for the Nigerian context. Good work here does not read like a Human Resources manual downloaded from a UK corporate website. It reads like something a real SME owner would pick up, skim in four minutes, and not immediately file in a drawer. Show that you understand the constraints: an owner who cannot afford to lose a week of a manager's time to training, who operates in an economy with irregular power and internet, and whose staff may be more comfortable discussing stress with a pastor than a counsellor.