By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Nigerian Correctional Service yesterday described the Employees’ Compensation Scheme of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) as a pivotal instrument for the re-positioning of the welfare of Nigerian workers.
The Comptroller General of the Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa remarked while receiving the Managing Director of the NSITF, Barrister Maureen Allagoa, who led her team to the headquarters of the Service in Abuja.
Represented by the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Training, Ahmad Muhammad, the Service commended the Federal Government for the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, ECS, describing it as a laudable programme created to alleviate the pains of workers who suffer in the course of work and help immediate families of workers who may, unfortunately, lose their lives in work-related accidents.
A statement by Nwachukwu Godson, General Manager, Corporate Affairs of the Fund, quoted him as saying, “We are happy that the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund deemed it fit to foster good relationship with our organization. We are also happy that the NSITF found it necessary to recognize and partner with the Nigerian Correctional Service for the welfare of our staff and the nation at large.
“We will collaborate where necessary with the NSITF to foster the growth and development of the service while looking forward to more areas of cooperation.”
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Nababa noted that though the service has a contributory welfare scheme which it established in 2006, it ready to embrace the wider opportunities was offered by ECS with which it registered in 2013.
Earlier in his speech, the Executive Director of Operations of the NSITF, Modu Gana, who represented the Managing Director said the ECS does not benefit only workers but also their employers, emphasizing that beyond compensation, the primary target of the scheme was to prevent workplace accidents and ensure a healthy national workforce.
“Even when an employer makes contributions for years without any of its staff getting injured, thereby making no claims, he still gains, for that is part of the primary focus of the scheme.
“And that is to prevent workplace accidents and promote a healthy workforce through the occupational hazard training which our trained officers provide to establishments nationwide, free of charge.”
He disclosed that a total of 670 dependent beneficiaries and 852 disability beneficiaries are currently on the monthly payroll of the Fund, further asserting that “the businesses of some of the employers of these injured workers who are on our monthly payroll have ceased to exist, yet we still pay them.
“We currently also have several deceased dependents who we are taking care of till their last child is 21 years old or graduates from the tertiary institution. You can now see why the NSITF is a social security agency is different from a regular insurance company.”
Meanwhile, the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State has enrolled in the Employees’ Compensation Scheme.
Addressing the visiting compliance officers of the NSITF, led by the Abakaliki branch Manager, Adaku Onwudiwe, the Registrar of the University, Ifeanyi Igwe, described the numerous benefits of the scheme as laudable and commended the Federal Government for making it mandatory for all MDAs to embrace, further urging the fund to live up to expectations.
Earlier in her speech, Onwudiwe enumerated the benefits accruable to the university upon enrolment and stated that the NSITF has over the years, restored hope to thousands of workers who suffered workplace injuries as well as dependents of other workers, who unfortunately died in the course of work.
She added that workers in the university deserved the best and should not be left out.
