By Ezekiel Fagbemi
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, (NSITF) has compensated two beneficiaries to the tune of 23 nillion naira under its Employee Compensation Scheme (ECS).
NSITF’s Managing Director, Barr. Olúwaṣeun Faleye, presented the cheques to the two beneficiaries on Monday, in Lagos.
One beneficiary, a widow of a deceased employee of MEDPLUS who died in a boat mishap while commuting from home to work, received a death compensation in the sum of ₦15,494,888.25; while a cheque for the sum of ₦7,801,045 was presented to a beneficiary who is a staff of Alexander Marius Investment as refund for medical expenses.
Presenting the cheque to the widow, Barr. Faleye commiserated with the family of the deceased for the loss of their loved one.
He acknowledged that no amount of money can bring back the dead or fill the void created by death, and assured the bereaved of the continued support from NSITF.
He stated: “The compensation is in fulfilment of our mandate under the Employee Compensation Act, which is to provide open, transparent and adequate compensation for all employees or their dependants when accidents, deaths, or injuries occur in the course of work.”
Barrister Faleye said further that the mandate of the NSITF was to “ensure that no one who is registered under the Employee Compensation Scheme is left behind when there’s a crisis or injury.”
Responding, the Head of Human Resource of MEDPLUS, Onojobi Tolulope, who represented the company’s Managing Director, thanked NSITF for coming to the rescue of the dependants of the deceased colleague and promised to galvanise fellow Human Resource practitioners in other companies to enrol their workers in the Scheme.
Under the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, aside the lumpsum given as death compensation, the Fund takes care of the family of the deceased until the children graduate from university or reached the age of 21, whichever comes first, as there is a monthly stipend due to them for the duration.
The presentation of the cheques was witnessed by a representative of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
The NSITF boss and his management team were billed to present more cheques to more recipients on Tuesday in Lagos.