World Safety Day: We paid N1bn to compensate injured workers in 5yrs – NSITF GM
The Nigeria Industrial Social Trust Fund (NSITF) has said it paid not less than N1 billion to compensate workers who were victims of occupational hazards and related diseases in the last five years. The General Manager of NSITF, Dr. Kelly Nwagba, said this while addressing newsmen on the occasion to commemorate the 2019 World Day […]
The Nigeria Industrial Social Trust Fund (NSITF) has said it paid not less than N1 billion to compensate workers who were victims of occupational hazards and related diseases in the last five years.
The General Manager of NSITF, Dr. Kelly Nwagba, said this while addressing newsmen on the occasion to commemorate the 2019 World Day for Safety and Health at Work in Abuja, last week.
Dr. Nwagba noted that the sectors with the highest rate of victims were construction and manufacturing. He said NSITF had been paying claims and compensation to those who suffered injury in the course of work and got them rehabilitated.
“We have also been paying claims and compensation to those who either got injured in work place or on their way, and they cannot get back to their optimum level, we have been paying compensation to those categories. The sectors with the highest rate of victims are construction and manufacturing.
“The current management, when it came on board, made it a point of duty to ensure that everybody that got injured should do what we call rehabilitation. We have paid not less than N1bn in the last five years.
“NSITF is an institution that is charged under the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) 2010 to, not only compensate workers who are injured in the course of work, but also strongly and unambiguously mandated to combine efforts and resources of relevant stakeholders for the prevention of workplace disabilities, including the enforcement of OSH standards in all work places, (ECA 2010; Sec.1 (F)).
“To this end, the NSITF implements Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OSHMS) with the goal to first of all prevent work-related accidents and diseases and ensure OSH standards, but where accidents and diseases occur, it rehabilitates and compensates as appropriate, Nwagba explained.
He, therefore, urged all employers and employees in Nigeria to boost their efforts to improve safety and health during course of work, adding that factors that influenced safety and health dynamics should be duly observed.