The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has clarified that it did not reject the 40 per cent deduction of employer contributions by the ministry of finance.
According to the statement issued by the fund’s general-manager, corporate affairs, Nwachukwu Godson in Abuja, NSITF has no such powers to reject the deduction as reported in the media.
He said that the fund was only reiterating an appeal earlier made to the former minister of labour and employment, Simon Lalong on 3rd October 2023 for a review of the inclusion of the NSITF in the Fiscal Responsibility and Finance Act of 2020 in view of its special status as a non-treasury funded agency, holding contributors money in trust.
The statement reads in parts, “For the avoidance of doubt, this is what the managing director’s statement released on New Year Day stated: The NSITF stands at the threshold of social and economic change, and poised to overcome its challenges as the custodian of social security”.
“Amidst our accomplishments, we are grappling with challenges impeding the fulfilment of our mandate, one of which is the deduction in 2022, of 40 per cent amounting to N1.4 billion from employer contributions by the Ministry of Finance as an operating surplus in line with the Fiscal Responsibility and Finance Act of 2020, despite the fact that the NSITF is not a revenue-generating agency.
The NSITF is a tripartite agency holding funds-contributions in trust for the benefits of employees under the ECS and without an operating surplus. The NSITF is also not treasury-funded and does not draw from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation and therefore seeks for a review and removal from the schedule of the Fiscal responsibility Act,” he said. (Leadership)