The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has requested the support of Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong and the Minister of State in the ministry, Honourable Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, to enable the agency overcome some of the challenges that hinder its attainment of achievements in the fulfillment of its mandate.
NSITF Managing Director, Maureen Allagoa, made the demand recently when she hosted the two ministers.
Presenting the achievements of the NSITF, Allagoa hinted that over N450 million has been recovered from cases won in court, but added that the agency needs the ministers’ intervention to overcome various challenges facing the agency.
“These challenges have encumbered the attainment of other monumental achievements that the fund would have benefitted from in the fulfillment of our mandate.
“A prominent challenge that has occurred in 2022 with a threat to reoccur in 2023 is the implementation of the deduction of 40 percent of the employers’ contribution to the fund by the Ministry of Finance as an operating surplus under the premise of the implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. N1.4 billion was deducted and paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) in line with the Finance Act 2020.
“As mentioned earlier, NSITF is not a revenue generating agency but more like a labour market institution with a tripartite operations structure of the government, the Labour unions (NLC, TUC) and the Employers’ Association (Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association).
“The monies that accrue to the fund are funds held in trust for the benefit of employees under the ECS and cannot be regarded as operating surplus. The NSITF is not treasury-funded and does not draw from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation.
“There is also the challenge of the limitations of the ECA 2010 in that it does not cover some situations, especially in the areas of claims and compensation and the informal sector. These existing gaps in the law have variously been exploited by dubious employers to the detriment of employees. There is need for an amendment of the Act to close up these gaps.
“Another challenge the fund is faced with is the big hurdle of the implementation of the recent Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval for the deduction at source of the one percent ECS contributions for all workers in the public service of the federation and the appropriation for the backlog of arrears from 2012 to 2023.”
The NSITF MD added, “The fund has most recently succeeded in getting the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to raise a circular to all MDAs directing the immediate compliance to the FEC approval for one percent ECS deductions from the budgets of the MDAs.
“The Fund is grateful to the office of the SGF for acting promptly on this FEC approval and directive of May 15, 2023.
“It is in the same vein that the fund humbly requests the minister’s urgent assistance in interfacing with the Ministers of Finance and that of Budget and National Planning to facilitate the payment of the ECS contribution arrears of 2012 to 2023 which runs into billions; interfacing with the National Assembly for the amendment of the ECA 2010’ interfacing with the Minister of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to remove NSITF from the schedule of the Fiscal Responsibility Act for the deduction of 40 percent of contributions received from the private sector. Over N1.4 billion was deducted from our account in 2022 and much more may be deducted this year save for your intervention.
“Interfacing with the Attorney General of the Federation in obtaining a fiat to prosecute some listed defaulting and recalcitrant employers as well as facilitating the gazetting of all lawyers of the fund to enable them appear on behalf of the fund in court in our attempt to recover outstanding monies due to the fund. The applications for these have already been submitted to the office of the AGF; obtaining approval for the regulations to the ECA 2010 as authorised by the Act for the administration of the ECS. These regulations need to be gazetted for effective implementation.”
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