NSITF calls for strigent laws compelling employers to comply with employees compensation Scheme.

By Afolabi Oyekunle.

Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) wants a strigent law to compel Employers of labour to pay the one percent mandatory contribution to the body towards compensation for workers under the employees compensation Act.

NSITF said while some employers in the private sector have keyed into the act and paying the mandatory one percent, many are still not paying, including those in the Public sector.

General Manager Corporate Affairs of NSITF, Mrs. Ijeoma Oji-Okoronkwo made the submission in Lagos while speaking on the programmes and achievements of the body at the monthly forum of the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria (LAWAN).

Mrs Okoronkwo was accompanied by the General Manager Lagos Regional Corporate Office of NSITF, Mr. AbdulLateef Musa.

She said the objectives of the Compensation Act among others are to take care of workers, compensate them for any accident in working places and to take care of families of deceased workers.

She said NSITF has been doing this in the last 12years. According to Mrs. Okoronkwo the act provides for the Fund to provide for the children of any deceased worker until the last child graduates and the wife left behind unless if she remarries.

According to her, the law covers workers in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. She said while NSITF is committed to the implementation of the Employees Compensation Scheme, the Federal Government must come to the assistance of NSITF with Acts compelling employers to pay the mandatory one percent contribution.

She charged employees to help themselves and report any employer not contributing to NSITF, who will then charge them to court.

Over 7million employees are presently registered under the scheme, while over 7billion naira has been paid as compensation.