NSITF Woos States to Subscribe to Social Insurance Fund

NSITF Woos States to Subscribe to Social Insurance Fund

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has embarked on a drive to get the 36 states of the federation to subscribe to the fund’s facilities as a means of boosting its reach and impact on Nigerians.

The Fund said that it has commenced talks with the Akwa Ibom State government which has indicated interest to make subscription to the social insurance scheme.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja Tuesday, the Managing Director of the NSITF, Mr. Adebayo Somefun, said the new management of the Fund has drawn up a four-point agenda with emphasis on consolidating on the achievements of the previous administration.

Another area of focus, he explained, is to make effort to improve on the contribution base of NSITF by getting more stakeholders like the 36 states to subscribe to the fund.

“For now rather sadly, there is no state on board, that’s why this time around we are going to move with ministerial strength to all the states. We have started with Akwa Ibom State,” he said.

Comparatively speaking, the MD said that between 2011 and 2017, a total of 12 cases of prostheses were done, while from May 2017 to date, 42 prostheses plus another 23 are being professed.

On the payment of compensation to injured workers, he said the Fund spent nearly N1 billion in the last one year.

The managing director also spoke on the outcome of the retreat held last weekend by NSITF in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State, saying
the management has decided that henceforth staff trainings are to be based on NEEDS assessment.

He said that effort would be made to get the Finance department of the NSITF to develop an all-encompassing accounting manual and software that can be easily accessible by the first quarter of 2020.

As part of the new innovations being introduced to expand the scope and operations of NSITF, Somefun said that the management has recommended the creation of an estate department.

Under the provision of the 1993 Act setting up NSITF, all employers of labour in the private sector registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990, either as companies or partnerships, irrespective of the number of their employees or were sole businesses with a workforce of not less than five (5) employees, were required to register as members of the NSITF Scheme and remit their contributions monthly.

Some of the benefits NSITF was mandated to provide include, retirement pension benefit, survivors benefit, retirement grant and death grant.

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