20,531 Nigerians Get Social Benefits In 1 Year – NSITF

Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) disclosed that it has successfully dispensed social benefits to 20,531 Nigerians under different packages of claims and compensation between March 2023- May 2024.

According to the agency, the achievement aligned with the social security goals outlined in President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s 8-point agenda.

The fund’s general manager of corporate affairs, Nwachukwu Godson, disclosed this information during the second edition of the fund’s monthly online Management Performance Review (MPR).

In a statement issued yesterday, Godson highlighted that the NSITF, leveraging the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS), has positively impacted thousands of lives in the workforce.

He detailed the benefits provided, including disability benefits, loss of productivity payments, death benefits, and medical expense refunds.

According to him, the recipients included workers from various companies such as Ratcon Construction Company, RCC Nig. Ltd., Reynold Construction Company, and many more.

He stated that the fund has established collaborations with various Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) associations, particularly those involved in agriculture, to align with the agenda to boost food production.

Godson said that in the past year, the NSITF has conducted 5,592 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) exercises to reduce workplace accidents.

He further disclosed that the management has also undertaken significant reforms to streamline operations and enhance productivity.

He noted that these reforms included introducing a three-tier management performance review system and establishing new service centres across Nigeria.

He said that the fund’s legal department had been reorganised to address legal challenges more effectively, resulting in significant debt recovery and reduced legal costs.

Additionally, he stated that NSITF has made the process of obtaining compliance certificates easier for employers and has partnered with NECA to ensure accurate contributions.

To support the workforce, he noted that the NSITF reviewed and updated the staff conditions of service and introduced a new integrated salary structure, promptly implementing the N35,000 minimum wage award.

According to the manager, in 2023, the NSITF promoted 1,671 staff through a corruption-free, computer-based examination process, transitioning to a more pragmatic performance management system.

The managing director of the NSITF, Maureen Allagoa, represented by the executive director of finance, Adegoke Adedeji, lauded the MPR event as a pivotal part of the agency’s reform roadmap.

“While the NSITF reached out to 103,000 injured workers with different categories of social security benefits in 12 years (2011 and 2023), the current management of the fund widened the outreach with an extensive inroad, dispensing benefits to an unprecedented 20,531 persons under different baskets of claims and compensations in one year (March 2023- May 2024)”, he said.