The National Social Insurance Trust Fund has said that about 800 families and individuals benefitted from the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) it operates since its inception in 2011.
Managing Director of the fund Adebayo Somefun disclosed this when delegates from the scheme paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, recently.
Somefun explained that since its inception in 2011, more than 50 employees have so far received prosthetic limbs from the fund having been injured in the course of their employment, noting that injured employees are also being rehabilitated by NSITF to prevent the injuries from becoming impediments to their livelihood.
The NSITF boss, who was represented at the occasion by the Executive Director, Administration, Tijjani Darazo, told the Nasarawa State governor that so far, the Federal Government has subscribed to the ECS, and that the private sector was clamouring to be a part of the scheme.
He also disclosed that upon seeing the gains the scheme, some state governors have indicated interest to get onboard and are working with officials of the fund on that.
Somefun explained that the Employees’ Compensation Scheme borders on welfare of workers in both the public and private sectors of the economy, reiterating that when NSITF takes care of compensation for injured or deceased employees, the fund is invariably assisting the employers (be they state governors, the Federal Government or private sector) and reducing expenditure that would have gone into catering for such employees.
The NSITF managing director stressed that it was due to the importance of the ECS that the fund was aggressively educating state and local governments on the gains of keying into the scheme, as well as explaining to them that the scheme was for every Nigerian employee.
Receiving the visiting NSITF team, Governor Sule expressed gratitude to the fund, and described the visit as coming at a time that Nasarawa State workers needed a lift in welfare.
He told the NSITF delegation that Nasarawa State is a diverse ethnic state with majority of its population being workers that need NSITF services, adding that 40% of workers in Federal Capital Territory reside in the state, which informed his government’s interest in the scheme.
He, therefore, mandated his Special Adviser on Finance, Special Adviser on Investment and Economic Development, Head of Service and the Secretary to the State Government to meet with officials of NSITF to work out the technical modalities that would help the state key into the Employees’ Compensation Scheme.
