Minister Orders NSITF To Re-adjust Workers Salary
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has ordered the management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund(NSITF) to re-adjust its staff salary structure before the end of January, 2022.
Ngige, who said at the closing ceremony of its two-day Management Performance Review at the Nigeria Airforce Centre, Abuja also gave the agency three months to fully automate its operations.
Commending the new management of the Fund for what it termed: “new focus and work friendly,” the minister explained that the conduct of the new team had justified the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the immediate past management team of their responsibilities.
“When in July 2020, the president approved the suspension and later removal of the former management of the NSITF after over three years in office, the fund’s savings was at a paltry sum of N2billion. The acting management of Kelly Nwagha, who bridged the gap for less than a year, moved the savings to N8billion and in six months, the current management under Mike Akabogu has moved it to N17billion. The people they succeeded in office had only N2billion in the account but left a liability of over N30billion. Is that a good management?
“So when you hear Ngige likes to fight, Ngige doesn’t like them because they are Yoruba, do not listen to them. I’m a nationalist. I try my best to model my practice of politics after the Great Zik of Africa. If you are working with me and you do the right thing, I don’t care where you come from. I don’t hate any tribe in Nigeria. I’m a nationalist. I have worked everywhere in Nigeria. If you are good, I will spot you out and encourage you. If you are Hausa and you do well, you are my friend, Yoruba, Igbo or other tribes, the same.
“If you are Igbo and you shun your responsibilities, I will kick you out. The same with Hausa, same with Yoruba. We are all Nigerians and I love all equally. But what I hate and will continue to fight is when people derail from their responsibilities. The Chairman of the Board of the NSITF, Austin Isere, a chartered accountant, chartered banker and chartered insurer is an Urhoboh from Delta State. I didn’t know him. The man who brought him to me is a Yoruba man, Fola Daniel and the President was pleased with his pedigree. This is the kind of Nigeria we want. When people are qualified, you give them their due.
“The best Director of Finance I have worked with in my Ministry is Ishaya Awotu from Nasarawa State. I have worked with others, even from my tribe. But Ishaya is brilliant and competent, that I keep recommending him till today for any finance and accounting jobs without blinking.
“When you hear any story, oh, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, don’t bandy it around me. I look for an excellent person and that’s how I operate. A lot of people hide under tribalism to cover up weaknesses and inefficiency. We can’t build Nigeria with such predilection.
“This new management is worker friendly. Unlike the politicians before them, they have not given themselves N10 million for vacation with their spouses. Even though it is there in the operational manual, but I advised them it is immoral for them to do so when some staff members cannot afford house rents, that the strategic reform they set for themselves must be all-inclusive and they paid heed.
“We discovered very sadly that the NSITF has not re-adjusted staff salary but it is not the fault of this management but of preceding ones who didn’t think about the lowly placed persons. We discovered it and have given them an ultimatum to do so by the end of January 2022. Other incentives will follow and will be tied to performance. If you improve your contributions before the end of March, all your allowances will be reviewed. So all the staff must sit up . A new system is here to reward hard work. The era of clocking in 8:30 am to sleep and clock out 4 pm is over.”
The minister, who listened carefully for four hours to the presentations of the challenges and future of the fund, from all the branches grouped into five teams, charged the management to fully automate the operations of the agency within three months, in line with global trend.
Ngige further directed that the Management.
Performance Review be made more frequent, every month, especially for those in operations, using virtual platforms, to bridge the gap in communication between the branches, zones and the headquarters, so as to properly ventilate every issue and carry along, all levels before decisions are taken.
The minister re-stated that every contract must be in line with the Procurement Act and must be done based on NEEDS assessment, vowing that the era of procurement just for sake of it was over.
Ngige noted: “When you visit some branches, you find items of furniture, some new, dumped all over the place. They were procured for sake of buying them and not based on the needs of the branches. This must stop.”
He said that a legal department be established in every branch saying additional recruitment of lawyers and accountants was done to firm up operations and there should be no excuses hence.”
Comments are closed.