By Mike ODIAKOSE
Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund has assured that the ongoing digitization of its operations will among others, promote digital inclusion and enhance its capacity for an improved social security to Nigerians .
The Managing Director of the Fund, Dr. Michael Akabogu stated this in Marrakech, Morocco at the World Social Security Forum over the weekend.
Moderating a discussion session entitled “Digital inclusion: Improving Social Security Service Delivery”, Akabogu noted that with the growing digital inclusion in Nigeria, which means the expanding number of Nigerians with access to internet-based communication, the digitization of the NSITF will exploit this growing gateway to information for seamless delivery of services.
He said, “ digital inclusion is basically getting everyone online without exclusion and giving them the necessary equitable access to and use of information and communication technology (ICT)for improved social and economic life.
“Digital inclusion as a tool for the improvement of social security service delivery is driven by the elastic impacts which internet-based digital platforms with its widening access to information could weigh on social security provision. Even as uneven as access to internet is between the rich and poor nations, our organization is shaping up to tap into the full benefits of growing digital inclusion in Nigeria.
“The challenge however is how a social security organization, positioned to utilize digital inclusion for the improvement of the social welfare of the people can effectively carry out this role. How do we bridge the digital divide to ensure that citizens of all classes benefit maximally through an unfettered access to our services?
“As digital transformation accelerates, its benefits and challenges with respect to digital inclusion is emphasized . For this reason , securing equitable access and inclusion of all communities in an increasingly digital society is a vital cross-cutting theme in the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.”
Narrating further, the import of this global phenomenon on Nigeria’s experience, Akabogu explained that digital inclusion is a great push to the efforts by the NSITF to grow social security especially in the informal sector where over 70% of Nigerians earn their living .
“ In Nigeria, our agency is a cardinal organization in the social security agenda in a country where the rural and urban poor constitute a great majority and where the over 70% are in the informal sector.
“ For us to achieve part of the United Nations Sustainable Goals on ‘Leave no one behind’(LNOB) we had to expand our social service goal to the doorstep of this majority in the informal sector where with the growing access to internet we hope to make considerable gains in no distant time.
“ Remember that “Leave no one behind (LNOB)” represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN member states -which we are part of to eradicate poverty in all its forms , end discrimination and exclusion and reduce inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity as a whole .
“An agency like ours where prompt service delivery – whether it is registration, certification, claims , compensation for injuries and death and investigation is pivotal, digital inclusion means so much, hence the urgency to digitize our operations.
“ In real terms, we are headed to a point where a registered rural trader in Akwanga , Nasarawa State North Central Nigeria or Eket, Akwa-Ibom in the far South South, who suffers injury in the course of work, reports through our digital platforms and gets attention in 24 hours, investigated and compensated in 5 working days. We are geared for an era where our primary role, which is accident prevention rides on the seamless trunk of digitization and digital inclusion to the ends of our country.”
He therefore expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for its support for the strategic reforms of the NSITF, central to which is the digitization of all its process, saying the fund’s management would not rest on its oars.
The World Social Security Forum is organized by the International Social Security Association every three years to highlight the key role of social security for resilient and inclusive society. Nigeria was among the over 1000 participants from 150 countries in attendance in this year’s event which made a series of recommendations on the future of social protection and the world of digital inclusion.
