By Laleye Dipo
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger State chapter is set to reposition all its investment schemes to bring them in tune with modern trend and ensure their sustainability, the Chairman, Ibrahim Umar, has disclosed.
Already the union has engaged the services of a renowned financial institution to assist it in the venture.
Some of the investments include the End Well Micro Finance Bank, the End Well Model Primary and Secondary Schools, the union’s housing scheme, shopping plazas, in addition to other properties owned by the union.
Umar, speaking at the commissioning of the End Well Model Secondary School in Minna, last weekend, disclosed that the financial institution will also restructure and reposition the union’s social welfare programmes to make them meet international best standards.
He said the organisation has been giving out educational loans to members to enhance their professional competence, adding that members were also assisted to buy plots of land to enable them build their own houses.
“I can assure you all that most of our members are now living in houses which they constructed, they are no longer at the mercies of Shylock landlords.
“I can also assure you that these schemes have not only touched on the lives of members but have improved on the members’ social and economic wellbeing,” he said.
Umar however observed that teachers were exempted from the 25 per cent salary increase carried out for workers in the state by the government, adding that primary school teachers in the state have not been promoted for several years and therefore asked the government to look into the issues in the interest of industrial peace and harmony.
The Chairperson of the NUT Social Security Scheme, Hajia Dije Jibrin Bala, in an address, said the scheme which commenced with 13,365 subscribers rose to 32,415 out of which 8,826 were terminated as a result of retirement, death and transfer of service.
Bala disclosed that the End Well Micro Finance Bank has been upgraded for more effective service delivery, pointing out that with this upgrading, the bank has capacity to handle the payment of teachers’ salaries and by extension other civil servants’ salaries in the state.
The Commissioner for Education, Hajia Hannatu Jibrin Salihu, commissioned the school on behalf of Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.
