The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) on Thursday disclosed that it raised N180 billion from contributors in the last 10 years.
The Fund’s Managing Director, Dr. Michael Akabogu, made the disclosure during an interactive session between the management team and journalists on developments in the Fund over the years.
Specifically, Akabogu said the collections from the private sector accounted for about 80 percent of the total revenue collected by the Fund from its inception in July 2011.
According to him, the management team believes that the contribution could have been better if all employers made their contributions as at when due.
To encourage contributions from employers, the NSITF boss said that the management was putting up a platform that will allow it process claims and pay claims to injured workers in 10-11 days.
He clarified: “Before we had a 14-day period – the time that the case is reported to the time that the payment is made we decided that we have to develop an electronic platform which is currently in progress, that would enable us monitor the movement of the files, so instead of the 14 days, we are targeting 10-11 days. At least we will be able to shed off three days”.
Speaking on the financial scandal that has rocked the Scheme in recent times, the NSITF boss assured that “it will never happen again. In the next few months, we have to work together to ensure that our operations are automated so as to be able us cut off some of these little issues”.
Akabogu pointed out that one of the issues of particular concern to the new team in NSITF was that “som times people make payments but it doesn’t get to the state branches of the Fund because of some nuisances that disguise themselves as NSTIF officials and agencies.
“They send various mails using the name of NSITF and the people that fall pray to that send money to them thinking that they are our agents, these are some of the things we have to make sure that we cut down on” he added.
He warned unsuspecting Nigerians that “you might come across these ponzi schemes that ask people to pay money into an NSITF account after which the amount will be doubled. Those are not NSITF members” he warned.
To enforce remittances, the new management leader said “if deductions are made from employees’ salaries, it is an offense that is punishable by fines and imprisonment.
“Over the years we have been using a persuasive method to get employers to pay fines for wrongful deductions from employees’ salaries, but now our legal arm has been activated, employers who refuse to pay fines will be taken to court and followed up to ensure that they pay what is due”, Akabogu added.
