Ebere Nwoji
LASACO Assurance Plc, recently paid a total of N365 million claims benefits to the families of 159 deceased workers of Lagos State Government working in various local government areas in the state and those from the state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). During the cheque presentation which took place at the Conference Hall, Ministry of Local Government, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, LASACO Assurance Managing Director, Razzaq Abiodun, said in presenting the cheques to the families of the deceased workers, the company was reacting to premium paid by the Lagos State Government for certain individuals based on promise it gave that in case of any eventuality, the company would pay such benefits. ”It is on that premise that we are paying the benefits. We are only making good the promise that we have made to Lagos state who has been judiciously paying the premium over the years that in case of death of any of staff of SUBEB or local government staff within the service period, that LASACO will pay some benefits”.
”The programme has been on since 2009 and I can also say that the one that we are giving publicity in terms of calling the people you see here today to come and collect benefits has been on since 2015. And we do it twice a year. From 2016 to now, we have paid over N3 billion to various beneficiaries”. ”Today is the first tranch that we are doing for the year 2021 and I am sure by October, we will do another batch”, the LASACO Assurance boss said. According to him, the symbolic issue in the presentation was the peculiarity of the project and it is something that the company would give kudos to the executive governor of Lagos State Mr. Jide Sanwo OLu for consistently paying the premium.
He said this is because if there were no payment of premium, LASACO as insurer would not pay the claims. He said the policy was a group life insurance package that the state arranged for its workers but that the claims being paid was for members of the state Basic Education Board and local government. According to him, the insurance company and Lagos State Government arranged the same programme for direct staff that work with the state parastatals and MDAs and other civil servants but the claims cheques being presented to the deceased families were actually for local government and SUBEB deceased staff.
”They are for dependents of the deceased, it is for all staff whether you are Lagosian or not. ”We are using it as spring board to cover other states we want to extent it to other states we are already talking to relevant authorities, the next batch will be around September October”, the LASACO Assurance boss explained. Also speaking, the Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Dr Wale Ahmed, said though the gathering seemed to be a solemn one, it attested to the state government commitment to welfare of staff. ”Lagos State takes good care of both living and the dead. The Lagos state government pays emolument 23rd of every month. To distribute insurance benefits to deceased staff in local government and state Universal Basic Education is evidence of how caring the state is to its workforce”.
The commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Morenike Sanyaolu, said the state commiserated with the relatives of the deceased present at the occasion to collect their entitlements and congratulated them for showing interest in receiving what was entitled to their relatives. He noted that some had died but had no body to collect their benefits and appealed to the recipients to keep alive the dreams and wishes of the deceased especially to their children’s education, warning against frivolous use of the benefits being paid.
