THE Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) spent about N825 million on compensation and rehabilitation of injured workers under its Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) in 2019.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Fund, Barrister Adebayo Somefun, in his New Year message to the staff, explaining that the figure was way more than what was paid out as claims and compensation in 2018.
The NSITF boss stressed that contribution generated into the ECS for 2019 was actually highest since inception of the Scheme in 2011.
Somefun explained that the high contribution collection enabled the Management of the Fund to deploy considerable sums in investment on behalf of its stakeholders, in accordance with the mandate of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) of 2010.
The NSITF boss also stated that the Fund was able to combine efforts and resources of relevant stakeholders for the prevention of workplace accidents, efforts which include the enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)standards.
Somefun emphasised that the Management of the Fund, in its bid to enhance productivity and improve the ease of registration by employers, launched the NSITF’s e-Portals for client’s registration and payments.
“We are currently working on the e-portal for issuance of NSITF Compliance Certificates to further revolutionise the Fund’s processes”, he said.
In recognition of the NSITF’s efforts on transparency and open governance, the Fund’s place on the 2019 National Freedom of Information (FOI) Compliance Ranking greatly improved to 26th position out of 191 public institutions, which featured in the rankings.
Somefun stated that NSITF remained poised to improve its debt recovery drive, and would carry the gains of the ECA to local government authorities, state governments and parastatals of the Federal Government, while continuing to enforce compliance in the private and informal sectors.
The NSITF boss also stressed that the Fund would increase sensitisation of the public and all stakeholders to galvanise support for the Employees’ Compensation Scheme and also improve public sector compliance.
