By Cross Udo, Abuja
Minister of the Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has assured the compliance of all the Ministry’s agencies with the Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), urging the Fund to work towards a fair and equitable work environment beneficial to both the strong and weak in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration.
The Minister, who also stated that the Employees’ Compensation Act is a law that must be obeyed to guarantee social safety net to workers in the formal and informal sectors, made the declaration in Abuja during an advocacy visit by the Managing Director of the NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye, over the weekend.
According to a statement issued by the General Manager of Corporate Affairs at NSITF, Nwachukwu Godson, the Minister was quoted as saying, “What the President wants is a new Nigeria, a Nigeria that will work not just for the strong but also for the weak, a renewed hope: to give hope even in the most hopeless situation. That’s what he wants.
“And I believe that as young people, we are in a better position to think out of the box, to be able to create a new Nigeria, to change the story, re-write it that generations coming can be proud of. Nobody can write such a story better than we can.”
Tunji-Ojo emphasized that the Employees’ Compensation Scheme is a lawful creation and pledged the compliance of all the agencies under the Ministry of Interior with it.
“As the Ministry of Interior, Federal Fire Service, Correctional Service, Immigration Service, National Identity Management Commission, NSCDC, and others, we will obey the law.
“Putting it in proper perspective, the risk my officers take every day is huge; my officers at the border, when they are there, you never know what can happen. They don’t sleep so that we all can sleep. They go hungry so that we can eat; they sacrifice their blood, sweat, and everything for this country. We will ensure that all the agencies under the boards of the Ministry obey the law. It is a law, and compliance is mandatory,” he said.
The Minister congratulated Faleye on his appointment and commended him for his impressive performance, which has yielded results within months of his arrival.
“I congratulate you for the good job you started, but of course, you have a long way to go. Your biggest asset is what you have: your creativity and innovation. I know you can do that.
The Minister also highlighted the need for direct deductions of ECS contributions from the ministries’, parastatals’, and federal government agencies’ accounts in accordance with the law but stressed the need for accountable and transparent use of all funds.
In his address, the Managing Director of the NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye, underlined the NSITF’s preparedness to support the President’s economic renaissance and spoke extensively on the ECS’s benefits to workers and employers. He stated that the Interior Ministry, with agencies whose employees work in difficult terrains, is better assured of better safety cover with the ECS.
Faleye said, “It is also very important to speak about the expected benefits if compliance with the law exists. I have mentioned the payment of medical refunds. Where there is any work-related injury or sickness, NSITF will step in and be responsible for such medical bills.
“In the unfortunate occurrence of death arising out of work, we will pay compensation to family members of the bereaved up to a certain threshold. There is also the payment of loss of productivity, which employers can recoup by recouping the loss of productivity associated with the death of an employee or sickness arising from work.
“All of these we believe are important social safety nets that ultimately improve productivity in the country, and that is our contribution to the economic renaissance that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is leading. So our visit is to look at these issues, address the compliance barriers between us and the relevant agencies, and drive strategic initiatives together to benefit the nation’s workforce.”
Recall that broad and intensive stakeholder engagement is one of the key agendas of the new administration of the NSITF, which aims to broaden participation in the scheme, taking the scheme’s benefits to the doorstep of all Nigerian workers. Remember, too, that the Federal Government had in October 2021 issued a circular for the commencement of the mandatory contributions of one percent of the payments of all public servants to the NSITF’s Employees’ Compensation Scheme.
Among Faleye’s entourage were the Fund’s Executive Director of Finance, Adegoke Adedeji, Executive Director of Operations; Mrs. Mojisolaoluwa Ali-Macaulay, General Manager of compliance; Lateef Musa, General Manager of Health Safety and Environment; Tony Eke, General Manager of claims and Compensation; Barr. Nkiru Ogunnaike; and Technical Adviser to the Managing Director, Dayo Alao, among others.
