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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
In order to enhance and protect the welfare and rights of all workers in the nation, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has emphasised the importance of involving the informal sector and integrating it fully into the employee compensation programme.
According to Mrs Maureen Allagoa, managing director and chief executive officer of the NSITF, the Employee Compensation Act (ECA) mandates that a worker who sustains an injury or accident contracts a disease, becomes disabled, or dies while at work be compensated, remunerated, and even the family be paid when the worker is no longer alive.
The MD spoke on Monday during a two-day sensitisation programme for all trade union leaders and employers in the informal sector that the Fund organised in Abuja.
Represented by Chikamadu Onyewuchi, NSITF General Manager, Informal Sector, Allagoa, explained that the sensitisation programme, which was concurrently taking place in four northern states, was intended to raise awareness of the Act’s provisions and pique the interest of informal sector employers in adopting the programme.
Represented by Chikamadu Onyewuchi, General Manager, Informal Sector, Allagoa explained that the sanitisation programme which ran concurrently in four northern states was targeted towards creating awareness about the content of the Act and capturing the interests of employers in the informal sector to embrace the scheme.
She said; “There is an Employer Compensation Act of 2010, which mandates all employers of labour in the country to key into the scheme and you register by paying one per cent of the total monthly or yearly remuneration of your staff to provide social insurance cover for them.
“So many people do not know about this scheme and what they and their businesses stand to gain by keying in, so we are having a Two-day sensitisation programme for the informal sector, with the focus on the small and micro enterprises, to create an awareness and enlighten them about the NSITF, about the ECA and the scheme, so that we can encourage them to key in and be beneficiaries of this great programme.”
The programme facilitator, Mr Oluwafemi Ola noted that lack of political will had been stalling the achievement of full insurance coverage of the informal sector in Nigeria.
“This sensitisation is a starting point. It has been long overdue. But then it has started and there must be no reason to slow down. The barrier has been a lack of will because the informal sector is not an area you can just dabble into. It requires commitment. So if that zeal is there, no doubt it would work. The zeal of making sure you organise them because they are not organised. You have to organise them and find a way of bringing the scheme down to their level. They may not be able to pay contributions like those who are in formal employment, but there could be schemes that could be designed within the scheme itself that will also enable them to benefit from the scheme which is what other nations are doing.” Ola stated.
Mrs Chinwe Nwaorgu, a participant and a representative of Heiz Engineering and Allied Services Ltd, applauded the Fund for organising the programme, stating that it had opened her eyes to its potential numerous benefits to employees.
According to Nwaorgu, “I want to sincerely thank the NSITF for this programme. In fact, it is an eye-opener. Henceforth, I don’t think our employees will suffer again unduly. Before now, when one of our employees got into an accident on the way to work, they would treat themselves with their own money without realising that they had already paid for it through insurance. But I now know that they have a right to the money that is being deducted for their insurance.”
