Federal Government on Tuesday gave a marching order to Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) to commence the prosecution of all erring companies, which fail to comply with the Employees Compensation Scheme.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, issued the directive in Abuja during an interactive session with heads of agencies under the ministry.
According to Ngige, the NSITF (establishment) Act provides that any company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and has up to five staff must be registered under the scheme.
The Minister who expressed concern over the 51,000 registered companies captured by the Fund since inception, stressed the need for the agency to redouble its efforts by extending its dragnet to the private sector and carry out compulsory turnaround of the fund in the bid to achieve its mandate of providing social protection for Nigerian workers.
He lamented that many employers of labour in the country were cheating their workers who spend their own money to treat themselves especially when they are involved in industrial accident.
The Minister, who noted that the Employee Compensation scheme is one of the nine social security initiatives contained in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 102, reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration resolve to domesticate the Convention, which also include health Insurance and conditional cash transfer.
To achieve this, he emphasized the need for the Fund to embark on public awareness and enlightenment and enter into partnership with other organizations that could assist them achieve its set objectives.
Ngige, who called for holistic review of the Employee Compensation Scheme, described it as “a very noble scheme. Do more proactive notices. By January 2017, I want to see you take more companies to court for defaulting or failing to comply with the Act setting up the scheme.”
He assured that the NSITF Board would soon be constituted to consider all outstanding issues including staff promotion, adding that it is only when the workers are dedicated that their promotion will become effective.
Speaking earlier, Ismail Agaka, NSITF acting managing director, explained that the Fund has so far registered about 51,576 employers since inception out of which 16,909 employers were registered between January and November 2016.
Agaka explained that about 8,813 beneficiaries are being paid compensation by the fund on a monthly basis with one of such relieving about N1.5 million monthly.
He also said that the fund is collaborating the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and organised labour in the area of workers’ education on the benefit of the scheme of the scheme.
In a related development, Ngige who expressed concern over the impact of the current economic recession, tasked National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to effectively carry out its mandate on job creation, through massive job creation in the area of agriculture and mining, which were hitherto neglected.
“We must battle recession from all fronts. We must take Nigeria out of recession in 2017 and the National Directorate of Employment NDE shall lead the way. This agency must lead domestic production in agriculture and mining. Nigeria must stop the importation of rice and other items we can produce here.
“Therefore, the NDE must redesign its programmes for the 2017 to align with massive job creation in agriculture, to sufficiently feed the nation and create jobs en mass,” he said.
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