From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Tuesday, said it has paid a total sum of N306,55896.23 million in the form of claims and compensations to its enrollees in the last four months.
NSITF also said it has within the same duration, successfully processed a total of 23,455 Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) applications from across its 56 branches and issued 22,761 Employee Compensation Certificates.
The Fund further disclosed that it has commenced the process of automating its operational activities in line with the recent directive of the Federal Government.
NSITF Managing Director, Dr Michael Akabogu, made this known at the Fund’s quarterly media parley with reporters in Abuja.
According to Akabogu who was represented by Barr. Maureen Alagoa, Executive Director Admin,
the paid claims and compensations cover medical expenses refund, loss of productivity and disability benefits to injured employees.
Others are death benefits to the next of kin of deceased employees and retirement benefits to disabled employees.
“As you would know, the mandate of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) is to champion the provision of the Federal Government’s social security programmes for Nigerian workers. We evolved from a Provident Fund Scheme to a Social Insurance Scheme and currently the Employees’ Compensation Scheme. Within the past 6 months, the NSITF has achieved some milestones as far as the execution of her mandate is concerned.
“In the last 4 months, we have paid a total of Three hundred and Six Million, Five Hundred and Fifty-Four Thousand, eight hundred and Ninety-six-naira twenty-three kobo (N306, 554,896.23) claims and compensations. These paid claims and compensations cover Medical Expenses Refund, Loss of Productivity, Disability Benefits to injured employees, Death benefits to the next of kin of deceased employees and retirement benefits to disabled employees.
“We are happy to let you know that all our operational activities are in the process of being automated through our E-NSITF project. This is in compliance with the Federal Government’s directive for ease of business and our desire to make sure that our employers experience ease as they do business with us. The E-NSITF project will amongst other benefits, block all financial and productivity leakages within the Fund and measure staff productivity,” the MD stated.
Also speaking, NSITF Head, Department of Informal Sector, Shehu Abubakar, noted that about 347 associations in the informal sector have been so far sensitized and over 1,000 enrolled in a bid to extend the Fund’s social security services to all Nigerian workers.
He said service delivery centres will be set up at strategic locations across the nation to capture more people.
NSITF General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs Ijeoma Okoronkwo, who revealed that most claims paid to beneficiaries were for road accidents, said the newly approved E-NSITF would make more finances available for the compensation of claims requests, increase the contribution of employers to the pool of fund and block all financial and productivity leakages.
According to her, digitisation will also improve the accountability of each staff of the Fund to their respective job functions; prevent the loss of the Fund’s information and as well as provide information to guide management’s decisions.
“The law establishing NSITF requires us to provide adequate compensation to employees who suffer injuries, death, disabilities and occupational diseases in the course of employment and this we have consciously pursued.
“The management of NSITF has commenced the extension of ECS to the informal sector to ensure that no worker (formal, informal and the organized private sector) is left out from the social security safety net.
“To effectively deliver on our mandate, the Fund sought approval to embark on the process of the automation of all our processes through the E-NSITF project. I am happy to report to you that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the project,” Okoronkwo said.