NSITF to collaborate with pharmacists on compensation scheme

From Benjamin Babine, Abuja

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has called for collaboration between the agency and the Association Of Hospital And Administrative Pharmacists Of Nigeria (AHAPN) to help in the implementation of the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS).

The Acting Managing Director (MD) of NSITF, Dr. Kelly Nwagha, made this call as he received a delegation led by the President of AHAPN Abuja Chapter, Dr. Abubakar Danraka, at the NSITF headquarters in Abuja.

Dr. Nwagha drew attention to the non-implementation of the communiqué reached between the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria and the NSITF, which he said would have helped more pharmacists in their work places and ensure greater productivity.

“The Pharmacist Council Of Nigeria, in which Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has substantial representation, is expected from that communiqué to enrol pharmacy practitioners en masse into the ECS, which compensates employees for work-related injuries, diseases and deaths,” he said. The practitioners in this instance include community pharmacists, patent and proprietary medicine dealers and employees of pharmaceutical firms, said Dr. Nwagha, who is also a pharmacist.

He said: “It is really unfortunate that up till this moment that communiqué is yet to be activated“, he said, and who urged the delegation to use its position to reactivate the communiqué for the benefit of employers and the employees in the pharmaceutical sector.”

He further disclosed that the agency had paid over N4 billion in compensation to subscribers of the ECS since the Fund was given legal backing in 2010, out of which about N1 billion was paid in 2020 alone. He noted that Preventive, Rehabilitative and Compensatory services are integral part of the Fund’s mandate.