The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has said that it wants all relevant stakeholders in Nigeria to device practical means of including workers in the informal sector of the country’s economy in the existing social security schemes.
The Executive Director (Administration) of the Fund, Ibrahim Wakawa stated this at the weekend in Abuja where he explained that the informal sector remains a vibrant section of Nigeria’s economy with about 70 per cent of Nigerian workers employed therein.
Wakawa said that the tripartite social partners of government, labour and employers must jointly design a funding mechanism for the inclusion of the informal sector in the three social benefits schemes that Nigeria currently runs.
He listed the schemes to include employees’ compensation, contributory pension scheme and health insurance schemes which were established by the federal government to provide social benefits to the contributors.
According to him: “What we have here in Nigeria is the contributory social security scheme, which means it is only people who are working in the formal sector that are able to contribute.
The people who are working in the informal sector are in the majority but are largely ignored because of the informality of their professions.
He said that: “The artisans should have the right to some forms of social benefit at old age but that is left for the Nigerian society to come up with how to fund such initiative.
In some jurisdictions, government funds these kinds of schemes and South Africa is a case in point. In some jurisdictions, those that work pay some kind of social security tax, which is then pull together for the benefit of those in need.
Wakawa further noted that: “The bottom line is that the society must agree on how to fund any of the social security branches as enunciated by the ILO. There is no single model for funding of social security initiatives.
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