Emulate NNPCL, extend health insurance to petrol pump attendants, IPMAN urged

From Sola Ojo, Abuja

The Independent Petroleum Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has been urged to extend health insurance coverage to petrol station workers, including pump attendants, cleaners, security, managers and others.

This call was in line with the recently launched health insurance scheme by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for these categories of oil workers.

Convener of Concerned Petrol Station Workers, Ibrahim Zango, noted that the welfare and wellbeing of workers must be treated as a priority.

He believed that the NNPCL initiative had set a commendable benchmark that should be replicated across the entire downstream petroleum sector.

To him, the call became necessary as the workers are exposed daily to significant health and safety risks, and therefore, deserve adequate protection, regardless of whether they are employed by the NNPCL outlets or independent marketers.

According to him, access to health insurance is not a privilege but a basic necessity that every worker is entitled to.

Zango also clarified that the current leadership of the workers’ platform did not emerge through a formal election but was formed out of necessity due to prevailing circumstances affecting petrol station workers nationwide.

He, therefore, reiterated the need for well organised leadership at the local, state and national level, for better coordination and improved service delivery in the petroleum downstream sector.

He noted that given the harsh economic conditions and rising cost of healthcare, workers can no longer afford to wait indefinitely for relief.

He, therefore, called on IPMAN to take immediate and concrete steps to provide health insurance coverage for their workers, stressing that proactive action was critical to safeguarding lives and sustaining the workforce that keeps the downstream sector running.