THE Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have jointly establishment of a committee that is saddled with the responsibility of working on the modalities for the participation of the Corporation in the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS).

The agreement to constitute the joint was reached at a meeting between the two organizations in Abuja when the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the NSITF), Umar Abubakar, paid a courtesy visit to the NNPC Towers.

The NSITF boss insisted that the NNPC participation in the scheme is not a favour to its employees but an obligation that is made mandatory by the Employees Compensation Act 2010.

The NSITF boss, who explained that the Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010 empowers the Fund to pursue legal actions in the case of non-compliance by any employer, reiterated that no other existing scheme beats the ECS in government desire to ensure the welfare of employees in the workplace.

He reiterated that as a major government institution, NNPC will serve as a vehicle to drive its subsidiaries and other government and private institutions to key into ECS. According to him, that would be in addition to the numerous laudable insurance schemes that employees in the sector enjoy.

The NSITF MD said the Fund re-visited the NNPC because it would be embarrassing for sister parastatals to resort to legal actions to compel compliance.

He explained that he is aware of the welfare packages the NNPC already has in place for its employees, urging however that they subscribe to the scheme as it will be of more benefit to the workers and in compliance with a government order on social benefit for its citizens.

While encouraging the NNPC to create a forum of enlightenment for its employees and put every resource together to bring their interest to the scheme to reality, Abubakar stressed that his expectations are that the Corporation will not waste any more time to comply with the law.

Responding, the Group General Manager Human Resource of NNPC, Adekemi Akintoye, who stood in for the Group Managing Director (GMD), said the Corporation is aware of the benefits of the scheme and also the various legal implications of non-compliance. She assured that NNPC had already accepted the scheme as a first line charge.

She however appealed for understanding to enable the NNPC resolve some logistics that precluded it from complying with the Scheme, assuring further that the Corporation will soon come on board.