In 2019, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) spent about N825 million to rehabilitate injured workers.
Managing director and chief executive of the fund Adebayo Somefun disclosed this in Abuja in a New Year message to the staff, in which he explained that the fund spent more on claims and compensation on injured workers last year than in previous years.
He explained that high contribution collection enabled the fund to deploy considerable sums in investment in accordance with the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010.
While highlighting the achievements of the fund in 2019, the NSITF boss stated that the fund was able to combine efforts and resources of relevant stakeholders for the prevention of workplace accidents, efforts which included the enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)standards.
Somefun emphasised that the fund, in its bid to enhance productivity and improve the ease of registration by employers, put in place innovations that would aid in achieving the purpose.
The innovation, he said, included the successful launch of NSITF’s e-portals for client’s registration and payments, adding, “we are currently working on the e-portal for issuance of NSITF compliance certificates to further revolutionise the fund’s processes.”
While expressing his delight over making processes open and keeping information about the fund in the public domain, the managing director disclosed that the NSITF’s place on the 2019 National Freedom of Information Compliance ranking greatly improved. The fund is placed 26th out of 191 public institutions which featured in the rankings.
Speaking further, he said the fund will carry the gains of the ECA to local government authorities, state government and parastatals of the federal government, while continuing to enforce compliance in the private and informal sectors.
