Magnus Eze, Abuja
Barely a week after the House of Representatives mandated its committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity to conduct an investigation into the non-inauguration of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Board, the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has cautioned the Federal Government to desist from the alleged plan to employ 350 senior managers for the Fund, because it will over bloat its workforce.
ASSBIFI also urged the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to inaugurate the board of the NSITF without further delay.
National President of the union, Oyinkansola Olasanoye, said the inauguration of the board would enable the Fund deliver on its mandate.
She expressed the readiness of the union to work with relevant stakeholders and government officials to continue appealing to the Minister to inaugurate the board.
She hinted that the union had sent a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, on the need to halt the recruitment of additional senior managers into the Fund that according to her, was facing financial difficulty and in no urgent need for fresh staffers.
She also urged the Federal Government to expand the mandate of the Fund to include payment of compensation to unemployed persons.
Olasanoye said the implementation of the N5, 000 social benefit promised by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) ought to have been implemented by the NSITF, which has the manpower and structures for such mandate.
She said: “We thought that the APC government would have allowed the NSITF to implement the N5, 000 social benefit to unemployed persons because the Fund already has the staffers that are trained in the implementation of social security in advanced countries that have been implementing it for decades.
In addition to this, they also have the structure in all the 36 states of the federation. Again, the Federal Government would not had to spend money to recruit fresh staff to administer the benefit. The reason the programme has not achieved the desired result is that the most appropriate body was not allowed to implement it.”
She added that the unemployed persons are at the receiving end of the excruciating economic realities in Nigeria today even after the country is said to have exited recession.
The Federal Government had in September 2017 named a retired General Secretary of NUPENG, Frank Kokori as the Chairman of the Board.
Statutorily, the NSITF board members are drawn from labour, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, who represents the ministry, the three Executive Directors of the Fund and the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Fund.