NASSIT EXPANDS COVERAGE
By: Joseph G. Bangali- Senior Reporter
On Thursday 29 April, the Ministry of Information and Communication at its weekly Press briefing at Youyi Building hosted the indefatigable and charismatic Director General of the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) Mr. Mohamed Fouad Daboh and his team of Directors. NASSIT was established as a Statutory Public Trust in July 2001charged with the responsibility of administering Sierra Leone’s National Pension Scheme. This Scheme provides retirement and other benefits to meet the contingency needs of workers and their dependents and is compulsory for all workers in the formal sector where there is a formal employer-employee relationship.
Since his appointment on 30th May 2018, the DG has worked diligently to make sure that operations and benefits payment are at the forefront of the Agency. Compliance has been a major challenge in the Trust over the years. To surmount this, the number of inspectors was increased and provided with refresher training and working toolkits and this has tremendously increased their output. For the first time in the history of Sierra Leone, a Social Security Court for all NASSIT compliance cases was established in 2019 to address the perennial non- compliance and other issues faced by the Trust. This has contributed immensely to addressing that menace. A motivational scheme to improve compliance was employed by organizing the Employers’ Banquet and Awards ceremony to bring the Trust and its members especially the employers together to deepen understanding of the work of the Trust, engender stronger commitment to, and support for NASSIT programmes in the areas of registration, contributions collection and data management. To also recognize and award some of those employers who fully comply with the provisions of NASSIT.
In terms of registered establishments, there has been an increase of 41% from 12,942 to 18,239 and insured membership has soared from 213,732 in June 2018 to 249,681, an increase of 17%. Delays in the processing of benefits over the years is because of the following challenges:
- Incomplete documentation;
- Gaps in members’ contributions records;
- Wrong members’ records; lack of information update; and
- Infrastructural deficiencies and data integrity issues.
A unit known as 54+ primarily responsible for interfacing with members to ensure their data is upto date before retirement is now in place to interface with members of the trust to fast track their benefit processing and access. There has also been a dramatic increase of 15% in the Pension Payroll from 24,002 in 2018 to 27,546 in 2021.
Coverage expansion to ensure visibility in every region, excellent service delivery within an improved ICT infrastructure, public information and sensitization to deepen the knowledge of the membership in the Scheme processes and procedures for key performance objectives and overall success of the Scheme are all highlights of the administration of the DG. NASSIT hour programes on Radio and Television as well as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter Business accounts in addition to the website are all geared towards providing public education.
NASSIT over the years has also invested heavily in Trust funds in several sectors ranging from tourism and hospitality to treasury bearer bonds and PriceWaterCooper, a financial consulting firm to ensure viability is currently reviewing investments in major banks and hotels and treasury bills, bonds and other deposits. A legal redress mechanism created under the Social Security Appellate Tribunal(SSAT) and the Medical Appellate Tribunal(MAT) as grievance mechanisms and also a Medical Board to examine invalidity claims.
The Director General concluded by dilating on the challenges posed by COVID 19 and affected members’ contributions greatly but notwithstanding the Trust was still able to make a significant contribution to the National Corona Virus Emergency Response Centre(NACOVERC) in the fight against this deadly virus. He ended by acknowledging the crucial role the media played and continues to play in the enhancement of the Scheme. Mr. Daboh underscored that NASSIT strongly believes in the core values of Respect, Accountability, Transparency and Excellence.