The House of Representatives has summoned the Minsters of Budget and Planning Udoma Udo Udoma , Finance Kemi Adeosun and Labour Chris Ngige over the failure of the government to remit Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund NSITF contributions from 2007 till date. The legislators took the decision following the unsatisfactory explanations tendered by the government officials who appeared before a committee set up by the Reps to investigate the failure of government agencies to contribute to the scheme.
Managing Direcor of the NSITF Adebayo Somefun while appearing before the assembly members, sought their assistance in compelling Ministries, Departments and Agencies to contribute to register and contribute to the Employees Compensation Scheme. Somefun also confirmed that the Federal Government had failed to remit over N17 billion.
Since 2010 till date, the Federal Government owes N17 billion to the fund. They should register so that their employees can benefit from the compensation when the occasion arises,”
Shomefun also lamented the poor take up of the scheme by states and local governments in the country of the The government also assented to the Employee Compensation Act 2010
The debt may take a while to settle
The Federal Government may not settle the debts anytime soon, as it is burdened by several other liabilities. The NSITF MD also did not provide details as to how the debt was accumulated. Why did it take so long for the agency to make the debts known ?
The NSITF was established in 1993 by the Federal Government based on recommendations made by the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization ( now known as the Bureau for Public Enterprises ). The agency is a replacement to the National Provident Fund which was set up as a poverty alleviation scheme to protect private sector employees. The NPF was scrapped for failing to meet its objectives.
Following the enactment of the Pension Reform Act of 2004, the NSITF ceded its pension business to a subsidiary company Trustfund Pensions Plc.