The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has urged employers, who are yet to key into the initiatives of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) to do so in order to strengthen the scheme’s narrative.

NECA noted it was important to join hands to bring rays of hope to employees through its compensation scheme and strong promotion of occupational health and safety at the workplace.

The Director-General Designate, NECA, Timothy Olawale, stated this yesterday, in Lagos at an interactive forum on Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) and awards ceremony on Employees’ Compensation Act 2010 by both organisations.

Olawale, who commended NSITF for having done well during the period, described scheme as an intervention that has put smile on employees face, giving them ray of hope that all is not lost.

A presentation on OHS by the organised private sector and employers’ expectation of NSITF by the Chairman, Committee of Human Resource and Learning Experts, NECA, Chuma Nwankwo, said occupational health and safety is an important aspect that is needed at the workplace.

According to him, when it is absent and accident happens, it results to injuries, disabilities, injuries or death.

When this happens, “the family and victims suffers and even the workplace nosedives, and the society actually pays the price because it loses a member that has been productive and contributing to the growth of the economy.”

The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the NSITF, Adebayo Somefun, who, highlighted some of the reforms put in place to reposition the scheme to make it more responsive also commended stakeholders, who have continued to faithfully and committedly contribute their own quota towards ensuring that NSITF continues to fulfil its laudable objectives.