NSITF: We’ll change the narrative, clear banana peels —New management

The new management team of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), led by its Managing Director, Michael Akabogu, had a parley with the media on the present state of the fund, following its perceived negative image as a result of alleged corruption under previous managements. Akabogu and his team opened up on the past and what the new management is doing to correct and change the narrative. Soji-Eze Fagbemi, reports the event.

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), without doubt, has been in the eye of the storm for wrong reasons in the last seven years, the situation that culminated in the probe and sack of its entire previous two consecutive management teams. Amidst this crisis, there were probe panels instituted and sanctioned by President Muhammadu Buhari, upon which the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige acted. Following the sack of the last management team, Michael Akabogu, the former General Manager, Risk Management, became the new Managing Director, while all other management team members were also previously within the system.

Still carrying the heavy burden of the past, Akabogu realized the urgent need to change the way of doing things and quickly correct the negative perception of the NSITF. He has therefore promised to change the narrative. In a parley with the media, the new Managing Director said, “since 2012 to 2020 there have been various issues, negative things that have to do with NSITF. It is not exactly as it looks, some people would say probably the place is rotten, the place is not rotten.”

According to Akabogu, “the actual mandate of NSITF which is caring for the injured workforce we are keeping up to it day by day, we are doing what is required.”

He pointed out that President Buhari, through the Minister of Labour had taken the proper step and done the needful to ensure that NSITF performed its statutory roles.

“Because of what has been going on before, the Minister of Labour has fought to correct it. This particular team are all members of NSITF, we have all been working there, we didn’t come from outside. So, nobody would say these are politicians they wanted in there. I was there as a General Manager, Risk Management. The Minister has done the needful to be able to make sure that this organisation comes to life and be able to perform its statutory functions and mandate.

“We are people of like minds who are bent to do what is required and needed to get the organisation in the right place. After my team came in, there were so many things that the entire workforce look at. Immediately we got there, we had meetings with our people and we talked to them that now, the narratives must change. They know who I am, I am someone that tries to make sure that things are done right. I am not being biased in what I am doing. In doing that, we have to make sure that we get the workforce in line with what the new management has in mind to get the NSITF in the right direction.”

He, however, regretted that the new NSITF management had not been left out of the negative media swirling around the fund, and therefore realized that “this needs to be tackled before the perception of the new management is soiled, even before starting the work.”

Akabogu stressed the need to explore media opportunities to sell the agenda of the new board to the public while differentiating the new management from the negative media of past management and attracting goodwill to the fund.

While promising to henceforth reach out to the media, he said “we have done a lot but we don’t get to the media to sell ourselves; it makes it look like there is nothing being done there.”

Henceforth, Akabogu said the new management will attend to the needs of the workforce and create a conducive working environment, and ensure the issue of their welfare. He said: “We deal in training, but our people in the house were not trained, so this particular team came up with an initiative where we have to create our own Computer Based Training (CBT) platform.

“Right now, we are developing modules that will have to address each function and each activity is carried out by every department, because that is one of the things that would be able to reduce our operational cost. There are still professional training that must be carried out, which has to do with the work we do, but we have to cut that down. We have also done a lot by putting in place measures to control expenditure. Both the new management and the workforce, we are all doing our best to change the narrative.”

On the issue of compensation, he pointed out that the new team was working to reduce the length of days to process compensation from 14 days to 10 or 11 days. The Managing Director said: “Before, we had a 14-day period from the time that the case is reported at the branch, to the time that the payment is made. But when the new management came in, during our first exco meeting, we decided to develop a platform that is currently in the process.

“It is an electronic platform that would help us to see the movement of the files. This is done manually before. For instance, an MD is supposed to be the one who will sign the final approval for the payment if everything is done, but if the MD is out of the office while all these processes are done, these files sit there for two or more days until the MD comes in. But henceforth, using the new electronic platform, wherever I am, I would be able to pick up and know that this file has gotten to my table and I would be able to do the needful. So, instead of the 14 days, we are targeting 10 to 11 days.”

To resolve the issue of the perceived rot in the system, he said the new management has to work very hard within two months to ensure their operation is automated, so as to be able to cut off some of these issues. He also explained that some fraudulent people outside the NSITF defraud people in the name of the company.

“They send emails and various things to people using the name of NSITF and the people that fall prey to that send money to them, thinking they are agents of NSITF. Those are some of the major things we will cut down. And we shall also make sure that all those banana peels are equally erased and would never be there anymore. We have to make sure that anything that brings that, we have to clear it.”

Also speaking, the General Manager, Enforcement, Mr. Lateef Musa, said the Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) is to provide compensation to employees who suffered death, injuries or diseases in the course of employment and the sole responsibility and mandate of NSITF is to make sure they are adequately compensated.

He said: “In this case, the scheme has run for almost 10 years and employers have been contributing and I want to say that within this period of time, we have registered almost 200,000 employers generally but have over 170,000 employers that are active and making their contributions on monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. So, over the last 10 years and within this period on the payment of compensation and development of ECS, we have collected both from the private and governments over N180 billion. We cover Federal Government, state, local government and all other agencies. About N180 billion has come in over this period of time as the contribution, 10 years from inception, from July 2011 to May, 2021.”

He further explained that decision making on the board of NSITF is tripartite in nature, as it involved the government, workers and the employers, saying there is a cordial relationship with labour as representative of the workers.

Musa said, “NSITF is a tripartite organisation where we have the representative of the government, labour which represent the employees (workers), we have NECA, which is the representative of employers in the board. So, the management of whatever comes to the NSITF involve government, employers, and employees who are the main stakeholders and there is no important issues that are discussed that are not carried along. No issue will be discussed without the board approval and there is no board approval without their presence. So, we have a tripartite relationship and they have been working out fine.”

On the issue of improper placement of staff, the NSITF Board Secretary, Mrs. Ijeoma Oji Okoronkwo, said in the past year, President Muhammadu Buhari had set up a probe panel that probed the NSITF, they did a full study of the fund.

She added: “The issue of improper placement is one of the things they have identified, and after that, the panel with his approval has developed a strategic plan for NSITF. In the next three months, we should be able to give a scorecard on how far we have been able to implement that strategic plan as approved by the President.”