It was a fulfilment of its commitment to victims of accident in workplace, as staff of Hydroodrive Nigeria Limited who had an accident while working as a secretary recently got a lifeline from the management of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in a sum of N499m disability benefit.
The fund presented a cheque of N4,994,50.18 to a beneficiary, Mrs. Sampson Ekaette Bassey, a disabled employee of Hydrodrive Nigeria Limited, in compliance with the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010.
This benefit paid to her by the fund was part of N306, 554, 896.23 paid as claims and compensations covering Medical Expenses Refund, Loss of Productivity, Disability Benefits to injured employees, Death benefits to next of kin of deceased employees and retirement benefits to disabled employees.
The managing Director of NSITF, Micheal Akabogu who spoke through general manager /head Corporate Affairs/ board secretary, Ijeoma Okoronkwo made the disclosure at a media interactive session in Abuja.
“Worthy of mention is the peculiar case of a staff of Hydrodrive Nigeria Limited, who worked as a secretary. On the 4 of January 2019, while waiting at the bus stop on her way to work, a reckless bus driver knocked her down resulting to a fracture to her right hand, spinal cord, and head Injury.
“She was awarded 100% disability and was treated at the Lagoon hospital, Lagos. As at the last visit paid to her on 11® January 2022, she was completely bedridden, paralyzed in all limbs, unable to speak and completely dependent on her husband.
“The arrears of disability benefits in the sum of N4,994,150.18 was paid after which the beneficiary was placed on monthly disability benefits in the sum of N146,886.17. This is one of out of many services that the NSITF offers to the registered employees”.
Speaking on the second quarter scorecard indicated that they have successfully processed a total of Twenty-Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty-Five (23,455) Employee Compensation Scheme (ECS) applications from across the 56 branches of the Fund and issued Twenty-two thousand, Seven hundred and Sixty-One (22,761) Employees Compensation Certificate in the last four months.
He said the NSITF has also committed itself to the ideals of Transparency, Accountability, and Prudence in the discharge of its statutory obligations to Nigerians, and to its employees in addition to capably meeting its obligations under the Employees Compensation Act, and the NSITF Act.
“In keeping with the directives of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, all monies standing to the credit of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) are remitted through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria. “In addition to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the NSITF, the procurement processes of the NSITF are no longer executed by the management board of the NSITF but are now within the purview of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in accordance with directives from the Presidency.
“This management in its bid to permanently reposition the Fund is not only ensuring probity in its financial management, but it is also implementing strategic reforms such as the increased utilization of technology in its operations and the redeployment of staff to departments and units where their skills and competencies are being harnessed and utilized for the good of the Fund and for better service-delivery to the Nigerian public.”
According to him, the NSITF has also been active in corporate social responsibility projects such as, Its one million-naira (N1,000,000) donation to the Kpakpando Foundation for physically challenged persons in Nigeria and the sponsorship of vocational skill training as an empowerment drive for randomly selected indigent Nigerians supervised by the Corporate Affairs Department.
“Our staff have also not been left out of all our achievements, we have planned and conducted several trainings geared towards increasing staff productivity and turnaround business time.”
He assured Nigerians that the Management of the NSITF will continue to deliver on the Fund’s mission to be “proactive in providing social security protection to all Nigerians” in line with global best practices and all relevant international conventions and the extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The mandate of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) is to champion the provision of the Federal Govemment’s social security programmes for Nigerian workers.
They have evolved from a Provident Fund Scheme to a Socal insurance Scheme and currently the Employees’ Compensation Scheme
