NSTF expends N835m on injured workers – MD
The Managing Director of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Adebayo Somefun has said the Fund has paid over N835 million naira to beneficiaries as claims and compensation between June 2013 and January 2017.
He said in the last one year alone, the Fund paid for 42 artificial limbs/parts to workers who lost their limbs while carrying out their duties and are currently being trained on how to move on with their lives.
Somefun stated this during the NSITF Special Day at the 2018 Abuja International Trade Fair.
He said, “Between January 2017 and June 2013, the Fund paid N835, 318, 858, 62Kobo to beneficiaries as claims and compensation. These include the: health medical refund - N202.9 million, death benefit N261 million, disability benefit N74 million, loss of productivity for employers N8 Million (amongst others).”
He explained that those who have benefitted from the special scheme run by the Fund include 298 injured employees placed on monthly or periodic payment, saying “those on periodic payments are employees still in their productive years of 55 and below who are no longer functioning effectively because of workplace/related injuries. Twenty persons above the age of 55 years have been paid lump sums on a once-off basis.”
The NSITF helmsman said in order to cushion the burden on families of deceased employees who died in the course of work, the Fund has paid forty-one lump sums for accidents/ diseases resulting in death of the employees and is currently paying 226 families monthly benefits, one of which receives N1.5 million monthly.
On what it entails to key into the scheme, he said; “To access these benefits, the employer - government or private/individual is required to pay only one percent (1%) of total payroll of the employees to the NSITF, and this is at no cost to the employee. Once that is done, it becomes the duty of NSITF to carry the burden which otherwise would have gone to the employer where there is a workplace injury, death or disability.”