*Sets up feedback mechanism
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has said it would henceforth ensure that applications emanating from injured or incapacitated workers are processed not later than 10 days.
It also announced plan for a fundamental restructuring of its service compact with the introduction of a toll free, 24-hour Call Centre to boost access and enable prompt feedback from members of the public.
It also said that as part of efforts to respond faster and offer effective service to subscribing employees, the NSITF was establishing an electronic feedback system that would ensure that aggrieved subscribers file their complaints and get responses real time.
Speaking on yesterday, at the NSITF-SERVICOM Stakeholders’ Forum, the Managing Director, NSITF, Mr. Michael Akabogu said the Fund was striving to restore full confidence of Nigerians to its operations.
He explained: “To bolster service delivery, the fund will in the next few months unveil a toll free, 24-hour Call Centre, with a catchy, easy-to -remember code to enhance access and prompt feedback.
“This is a fundamental step intended to tear down the wall between the fund and its numerous publics especially with the issues of complaints on claims, registration and emergencies. It will effectively eliminate cases, where mishaps are not promptly reported for reasons of hours of the day or days of the week, when offices are usually shut.”
On the issue of slow response to claims made by injured workers, the MD said the organisation has a standard practice of responding timely to claims within 14 days.
He, however, noted that delays may occur due to lack of prompt report of cases of victims.
He said most times the people do not report incidents to the appropriate departments at the NSITF on time.
Regarding the time lag for processing of claims and compensations, Akabogu said the situation has significantly improved.
According to him, “over past one year, most of the claims were paid before 14 days.”
He also said the NSITF had set a new target of shortening the time frame to about 10 days
“SERVICOM department is one of the core areas that is required by the Fund for us to be able to let entire country feel impact of what we are doing,” he said.
Akabogu said previously, SERVICOM’s operation was not effectively implemented in the organisation, adding that presently, this has improved tremendously.
“Right now, if I want to rate our compliance level, it is about 78 per cent. But going forward in the next few months, we will try to establish a Call Centre unit so that we will be able to get feedback from Nigerians.
“So we will be able to score 100 per cent compliance latest by January,” he added.
The MD said that as part of the restructuring that took place at the NSITF, a new General Manager for SERVICOM department, Mr. Nwachukwu Obidiwe was appointed.
Akabogu further noted that the programme would be a huge boost to the Fund’s inroads into the bustling informal sector, where regular Nigerians in dire need of the services abound.
“Over the past one year, most of the claims were paid before 14 days but now, we want to shorten the time frame to 10 days. SERVICOM department is one of the core areas we need to reinforce to achieve this, so that the entire country will feel the impact of what we are doing.
“Our SERVICOM operation was not top notch hitherto but we have made tremendous improvement. Right now, I rate our compliance level about 78 percent. But going forward, in the next few months, when we would have established a call centre to widen the scope of feedback, it will jump to 100 percent,” he added.
Akabogu who also announced plan for a comprehensive Employee Enumeration of all workers of the organisations as well as companies registered under the Employee Compensation Scheme, said the development was necessary to ensure that compensation and other services were availed only to the registered or indemnified workers.
“This will eliminate cases where benefits are dispensed to proxies outside the bracket of indemnity. Using the National Identity Management(NIM) biometrics, the fund will henceforth run an integrated data base of each company/ organisation and the indemnified staff members to track membership and ensure efficient service delivery,” he added.
In her address, the National Coordinator of SERVICOM, Mrs. Nnenna Akajemeli said the forum was an opportunity to interact with beneficiaries and stakeholders of the fund, to equip participants with feedback towards ensuring seamless services.
She emphasised the need for routine monitoring of service delivery to engender new strategies to tackle emerging issues.
Presentation was also made by the representative of the President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba who stressed the need for an energised workforce for optimum productivity.
The Director General of Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) Wale Oyerinde also cautioned against coercive enforcement of the Compensation Act, insisting that cooperation and deepening of trust were a better option to widening the bracket of participation in the scheme.
