In the petroleum industry, safety conversations have historically centred on the visible and the combustible faulty equipment, inadequate fire suppression systems, untested emergency protocols, the quiet danger of a fuel terminal that does not meet standard. But at NP (SL)’s Shell facility on Parsonage Street in Kissy, Freetown, on Tuesday, the conversation went somewhere less charted: the inner life of the worker.
On April 28, 2026 World Day for Safety and Health at Work the National Petroleum company of Sierra Leone gathered its management, staff and key stakeholders under the theme “Ensuring a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment,” dedicating the annual observance not just to physical safety protocols but to the mental and emotional conditions under which its workforce shows up, performs, and makes the life-or-death decisions that petroleum operations demand every day.
It was a significant editorial choice. In a sector where a moment of distraction, fatigue or unresolved personal stress can translate into a fire, a spill, or a fatality, framing psychosocial health as a core safety issue is not a corporate wellness gesture it is operational logic.
NP (SL)’s Human Resource Manager, Georgina Williams, opened with a candid account of the psychosocial risks that modern workplaces carry and too often ignore. Workplace harassment, unfair treatment and poorly defined job roles, she noted, are among the leading stressors eroding productivity, staff morale and overall wellbeing within professional environments including NP (SL)’s own.
The acknowledgment was notable for its specificity. These are not abstract forces. They are the experience of a driver who does not know who to report to when something goes wrong. They are the experience of a worker who faces daily harassment and has no structured pathway to address it. They are the compounding weight of professional uncertainty layered on top of whatever pressures exist at home the kind of load that builds quietly until it becomes a liability on the floor of a fuel terminal.
Williams outlined several measures the company has introduced to address these pressures directly: improved internal communication systems, the placement of suggestion boxes across operational sites, and work-life balance initiatives including casual dress Fridays. Staff welfare programmes including birthday recognitions at the head office canteen were also cited as part of a broader effort to foster belonging and boost morale.
These are small gestures in isolation, but in an operational culture that has historically treated worker welfare as secondary to throughput, they signal an intent to build something more durable: a workplace where people feel seen before they feel strained.
Finance Manager Consvonne Macrae brought a different kind of candour to the event. Acknowledging NP (SL)’s generally positive working environment, she was direct about the reality that employees remain vulnerable to mental stress regardless of the organisational temperature — and that sustained engagement and robust support systems are not optional extras but structural requirements for any team that depends on coordinated effort and strong interpersonal relationships to function.
The observation cut to the core of what psychosocial safety actually means in practice. It is not about eliminating difficulty from the workplace no management team can legislate away grief, financial pressure, relationship breakdown or the cumulative weight of life in a country still building its recovery from decades of structural underdevelopment. It is about ensuring that the structures around a worker their line manager, their HR department, their team culture are responsive enough to catch a person before their difficulty becomes a danger.
The event was not solely about internal wellbeing. Musa Kajue, representing the National Fire Force, confirmed that NP (SL) continues to meet established fire safety standards a statement with more weight than usual given the regulatory backdrop. A recent fire incident prompted the Government to mandate comprehensive fire risk assessments across all petroleum facilities in Sierra Leone, including NP (SL)’s terminals. Those assessments examined the availability and functionality of fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and related emergency equipment, with the company confirmed to be in compliance.
Kajue also highlighted the National Fire Force’s expansion of training programmes for institutions seeking to strengthen their fire safety capacity, describing the partnership between the agency and NP (SL) as mutually beneficial. He drew attention to ongoing infrastructure improvements including the construction of boreholes and installation of water tanks aimed at addressing one of Freetown’s persistent operational vulnerabilities: limited access to functional fire hydrants in areas of the city where petroleum infrastructure is concentrated.
NP (SL)’s contribution to strengthening emergency response systems, he noted, extends beyond its own facilities. It is a supply-chain partner in the city’s broader fire readiness a point worth registering in a country where public emergency infrastructure has historically struggled to keep pace with commercial and industrial expansion.
In his keynote, Dr. Mohamed S. Kanu, Chief Executive Officer of NP (SL), set the tone for what he described as an organisation that takes safety not as a compliance exercise but as an institutional identity. He commended staff particularly drivers, who carry some of the highest exposure to both physical and psychosocial risk in the company’s operations for their consistent adherence to safety protocols.
Dr. Kanu confirmed that NP (SL) remains ISO certified and continues to undergo annual audits to sustain both compliance and operational excellence. For a national petroleum company operating in a regulatory environment that is still maturing, that certification is a meaningful baseline and the commitment to annual review signals that the company treats it as a floor rather than a ceiling.
He also spoke plainly about professionalism in staff conduct and appearance during customer interactions, about the value of collaboration with security agencies, and about management’s commitment to strengthening psychosocial support systems as a driver of productivity and safety rather than a peripheral concern. The framing was deliberate: mental wellbeing is not separate from operational performance. It is part of the same system.
Closing the event, Operations Manager Vandi Bockarie offered a ground-level assessment of where NP (SL) currently stands. Notable progress has been made in reducing workplace incidents, he reported an achievement he attributed directly to the dedication of the Terminal Controller Operations team. Drivers, again, received specific recognition for their role in maintaining safety standards and supporting emergency response efforts, including their capacity to operate hydrants and manage terminal risks under pressure.
But Bockarie was also unflinching about the vulnerabilities that remain. Personal and life challenges the things that employees carry through the gate every morning are significant factors in psychosocial health and safety performance. Fatigue and distraction, he said, are the leading causes of workplace incidents. His message to staff was blunt and important: speak up when unfit for duty. Not as a sign of weakness, but as a professional act the kind of individual responsibility that a safety culture requires in order to function.
To reinforce that culture at the start of every working day, Bockarie disclosed plans to introduce daily morning safety briefings a structural intervention that will give workers a consistent, low-stakes opportunity to flag concerns, receive information and begin each shift with safety front of mind.
World Day for Safety and Health at Work, observed every April 28 under the mandate of the International Labour Organisation, exists to draw global attention to the scale of occupational risk. The ILO estimates that more than two million workers die from work-related accidents and diseases every year worldwide, with hundreds of millions more suffering non-fatal injuries and illnesses the majority in developing economies where regulatory infrastructure, enforcement capacity and employer accountability are weakest.
Sierra Leone sits within that landscape. The petroleum sector, in particular, carries risks that compound the ordinary pressures of work: flammable materials, heavy machinery, operational environments where a single procedural failure can have consequences far beyond the individual worker. The fact that NP (SL. chose to anchor its 2026 World Day observance around psychosocial health rather than limiting the conversation to fire suppression and equipment checks suggests a company that understands the risks it cannot see are often the ones that matter most.
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Freetown’s largest national petroleum operator is not a perfect institution. No large operational company in a developing economy is. But the commitments made publicly at Parsonage Street on Tuesday to stronger support systems, clearer communication channels, daily safety briefings, and a culture that allows workers to say when they are not okay deserve to be held to account in the months and years ahead.
The theme was “Ensuring a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment.” The harder question is always what happens when the event ends and the working week resumes. That is where the commitment is tested, and where the workers themselves will be watching.
