Interior Ministry Assures on Staff Enrolment into NSITF
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Minister of the Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has assured the compliance of all the ministry’s agencies to the Employees Compensation Scheme(ECS) of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund(NSITF).
A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Nwachukwu Godson said that the minister charged NSITF to work towards a fair and equitable work environment beneficial to both the strong and weak in line with the agenda of the Bola Tinubu administration.
The minister stated this in Abuja during an advocacy visit by the Managing Director of the NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye, over the weekend.
He said: “ What the President wants is a new Nigeria, a Nigeria that will work not just for the strong but also for the weak, a renewed hope: to give hope even in the most hopeless situation, that’s what he wants.
“And I believe that as young people, we are in a better position to think out of the box, to be able to create a new Nigeria, to change the story, re-write it that generations coming can be proud of. Nobody can write such a story better than we can.”
Tunji-Ojo emphasised that the Employees’ Compensation Scheme is a creation of the law and pledged the compliance of all the agencies under the Ministry of Interior to the scheme.
“For us as Ministry of Interior, Federal Fire Service, Correctional Service, Immigration Service, National Identity Management Commission, NSCDC, others, we will obey the law.
“Putting it in proper perspective, the risk my officers take every day is huge, my officers at the border, when they are there, you never know what can happen. They don’t sleep so that we all can sleep.
“ They go hungry so that we can eat, they sacrifice their blood, their sweat, and everything for this country. We will make sure that all the agencies under the boards of the ministry obey the law. It is a law, and compliance is mandatory,” he said .
The Managing Director of the NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye in his remark, assured on the preparedness of the NSITF to support the economic renaissance effort by the president.
He further spoke on the benefits of the ECS to workers and employers, stating that the Interior Ministry with agencies whose employees work in difficult terrains are better assured of better safety cover with the ECS.
Faleye said: “It is also very important to speak about the benefits that are expected if there is compliance with the law. I have mentioned the payment of medical refunds. Where there is any injury or sickness that is work-related, NSITF will step in and be responsible for such medical bills.
“In the unfortunate occurrence of death arising out of work, we will pay compensation to family members of the bereaved up to a certain threshold. There is also the payment of loss of productivity where employers are able to recoup loss of productivity that is associated with the death of an employee or sickness arising from work”.
