The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund said it had paid over N300m as claims and compensations to beneficiaries in the last four months.
This was made known by the board secretary and General Manager, Mrs Ijeoma Oji-Okoronkwo, who represented the Managing Director, Dr Michael Akabogu, at the NSITF quarterly press briefing on Tuesday in Abuja.
The board secretary said the Fund paid the sum total of N306,55896.23m as claim and compensation, successfully processed a total of 23,455 Employees Compensation Scheme applications from across its 56 branches and issued 22,761 Employee Compensation Certificates.
Oji- Okoronkwo who revealed that most claims paid to beneficiaries were for road accidents, said the newly approved E-NSITF would make more finances available for the compensation of claims requests, increase the contribution of employers to the pool of funds and block all financial and productivity leakages.
She said, “In the last 4 months, we have paid a total of Three hundred and six million, five hundred and fifty-four thousand, eight hundred and ninety-six naira, twenty-three kobo (N306, 554,896.23) claims and compensations. These paid claims and compensations cover medical expenses refunds, loss of productivity, disability benefits to injured employees, death benefits to the next of kin of deceased employees, and retirement benefits for disabled employees.
“Worthy of mention is the peculiar case of staff of Hydro drive Nigeria Limited, who worked as a secretary. On the 4th of January 2019, while waiting at the bus stop on her way to work, a reckless bus driver knocked her down resulting in a fracture to her right hand, spinal cord, and head injury. She was awarded 100% disability and was treated at the Lagoon hospital, Lagos.
“As at the last visit paid to her on 14 January 2022, she was completely bedridden, paralysed in all limbs, unable to speak and completely dependent on her husband. The arrears of disability benefits in the sum of N4,994,150.18 was paid after which the beneficiary was placed on monthly disability benefits in the sum of N146,886.17. This is one of out of many services that the NSITF offers to the registered employees.”
The board secretary added that digitisation will also improve the accountability of each staff of the Fund to their respective job functions; prevent the loss of the Fund’s information and as well as provide information to guide management’s decisions.
She stated, “The law establishing NSITF requires us to provide adequate compensation to employees who suffer injuries, death, disabilities and occupational diseases in the course of employment and this we have consciously pursued.
“The management of NSITF has commenced the extension of ECS to the informal sector to ensure that no worker (formal, informal and the organized private sector) is left out from the social security safety net.
To effectively deliver on our mandate, the Fund sought approval to embark on the process of the automation of all our processes through the E-NSITF project. I am happy to report to you that the Federal Executive Council has approved the project.” Continue Reading
