Workers in Abia and Anambra states would soon begin to enjoy the benefits of the Employee Compensation Scheme championed by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), MUK TV has learned.
The Tribune reported that this was according to a statement signed by General Manager, Corporate Affairs, NSITF, Nwachukwu Godson, on Sunday in Abuja, which noted that the government of the states at the weekend, promised to set in place modalities that would enable all workers, both at the state and local government levels, enroll in the program within the shortest time possible.
Anambra State Head of Service, Theodora Igwegbe, who received the state branch of the NSITF on a sensitization visit in Awka, promised to liaise with all relevant offices towards ensuring the state government enrolls its workers into the scheme.
Igwegbe noted that she is conversant with the Employee Compensation Act of 2010 and the enormous benefits the scheme could bring to the government of Anambra State and her employees.
She said, “While I served as the Deputy Clerk of the Anambra State House of Assembly in 2017, I engineered a private member bill, through my representative, on the Employee Compensation Scheme for possible adoption by the state government but that it did not see the light of day.
“With my current position as the Head of Service, I believe a great opportunity is here for me to liaise with other necessary offices in the state government towards the implementation of this laudable scheme.”
NSITF’s acting Manager, Awka Branch, Mr. Okpala Chibikem, noted that Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s vision of Dubai-Taiwan would receive a big boost with the enrolment of workers into the employee compensation scheme.
“The ECA 2010 is aimed at providing guaranteed and adequate compensation to registered employees in the event of death, injury, disability or diseases arising from work or in the course of work, at the place of work or outside of it.
“It also provides compensation to the next of kin of an employee who may die at work or in the course of work. The one percent of the worker’s emoluments to be paid as contribution by the state government is not deductible from workers’ salaries as the state government, by ECA 2010, should shoulder the responsibility.”
Meanwhile, Chief of Staff to the Abia State Government, Chukwurah Ajagba, has assured that the new administration in the state would deploy employee compensation as one of the tools to lift the lots of Abia workers.
Ajagba, who commended the Federal Government for establishing the scheme while addressing a visiting team of the Umuahia Branch of the NSITF, however, noted that a lot needed to be done to sensitize the public on the benefits of the scheme.
In his presentation, the Manager, of NSITF, Umuahia Branch, Uzoafia Ulari, maintained that the fund was making steady progress in the enrolment of private businesses in the state and urged the state government to avail its workers the benefits that NSITF provides by registering them.
According to Ulari, the family of a deceased doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, who died in the course of work, was currently receiving death benefits from the NSITF among other residents of the state who benefit from either medical expenses, disability, or retirement compensations.
He averred that once claims were properly made with all the verifiable documents attached, the NSITF does not hesitate in discharging its responsibilities.
