The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF),has spent over N4 billion as compensation paid to employees of various organizations who had accidents in their places of work.
Dr.Kelly Nwagha,the acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Fund,also said that it spends at least N1 million on monthly basis as compensatory payment to individual employees that lost their spouses.
He disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja to mark the 2021 World Day for Safety and Health at Workplace tagged: “Anticipate, Prepare and Respond To Crisis – Invest Now In Resilient Occupational Safety and Health Systems”, organized by its Health Safety and Environment (HSE) department.
He admonished Nigerians to enroll in the Employee Compensation Scheme to enable them enjoy the benefits.
He said: “This year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work focuses on the theme “Anticipate, Prepare and Respond To Crisis – Invest Now In Resilient Occupational Safety and Health Systems” as it unveil strategies to invest in resilient Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) systems in workplaces in order to face crises, now and in the future, drawing lessons and experiences from the world of work.
“NSITF is calling on all employers of labour to enroll all its employees into the employee compensation scheme because of the many benefits that are in the scheme. This is basically what we are preaching today. And we are going about all over the 56 branches of NSITF today preaching this message, creating more awareness, enlightening the public on the benefits that come to them. The public, the employer and the employee. If they key in, you, the press will also benefit.
“If an employee is enrolled into the scheme by the employer, the responsibility of taking care of those injuries falls reasonably on NSITF, reasonably because if you do not get the information, there is nothing we can do about it. But if the employer informs us in good time to come and carry out the necessary investigations, the purpose of which is to identify the causes that led to those injuries, we have measures on ground that will mitigate future occurrences or the impact”.
