NSITF Clarifies Position on 40% Deduction from Employers’ Contributions by FG

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja      
   

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has explained that the Fund did not at any time reject the 40 per cent deduction of Employers’ contributions by the Finance Ministry.

A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Nwachukwu Godson, stated that what the Managing Director of the NSITF, Maureen Allagoa, stated in her New Year message was a reiteration of an appeal earlier made to the former Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, on October 3, 2023, for a review of the inclusion of the NSITF in the Fiscal Responsibility and Finance Act of 2020, in view of its special status as a non-treasury funded agency, holding contributors’ money in trust

“The NSITF has no such powers as the management of the Fund is fully aware of the circular on Presidential Directive on 50 per cent Automatic Deduction from Internally Generated Revenue of Federal Government Owned Enterprises.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this is what the Managing Director’s statement released on New Year Day stated:

“The NSITF stands at the threshold of social and economic change, and poised to overcome its challenges as the custodian of social security.

 “Amidst our accomplishments, we are grappling with challenges impeding the fulfillment of our mandate, one of which is the deduction in 2022, of 40 per cent amounting to N1.4 billion from employer contributions by the Ministry of Finance as an operating surplus in line with the Fiscal Responsibility and Finance Act of 2020, despite the fact that the NSITF is not  a revenue-generating agency.

“The NSITF is a tripartite agency holding funds-contributions in trust for the benefits of employees under the ECS and without an operating surplus. The NSITF is also not treasury-funded and does not draw from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation and therefore seeks for a review and removal from the schedule of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”

Speaking further on the Fund’s agenda for the New Year, Allagoa said the poverty reduction agenda of the Tinubu  administration has a direct bearing on the mandate of the NSITF.

“The NSITF will tap into areas of the  ILO Convention 102 on old age benefits, unemployment and family benefits as well as expand the agency’s corporate social responsibility programmes on skills acquisition and empowerment in line with the Eight Point Agenda of the Tinubu administration.”

She added that the Fund would create new branches and service centres in 2024, to expand social services to the doorstep of all Nigerians in line with the social inclusion standards of the ILO Convention 102, adding that the agency will consolidate its 2023 achievements while expanding the percentage of the population protected by social security scheme. 

 “We are expanding our operations into the informal sector and other unreached areas in dire need of our services so as to save more people from lacerating social conditions,” she added.