By Victor Ahiuma-Young

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, has deepened its drive to digitalise the Employees’ Compensation Scheme, ECS, among others operations, by partnership the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, to integrate data-sharing and seamless validation of worker information under the ECS.

In other words, National Identity Numbers, NIN, will become key to ECS operations in the NSITF, NIMC data deal NSITF Managing Director, Oluwaseun Faleye, explained the significance of the partnership when he led a delegation of top management of the Fund on a courtesy visit to the Director-General of NIMC, Engineer Abisoye Coker-Odusote.

According to Faleye, the partnership would enhance NSITF’s efficiency and streamline its processes by improving access to a reliable database—ultimately broadening the scope of social security.

He noted that the data and research being gathered by NIMC nationwide “will help our understanding of the demography under the Employees’ Compensation Scheme.”

Faleye emphasized: “This collaboration will bring sanity to the identity management space. We must harmonize all data related to the ECS. No one should be registered under the scheme unless they are captured through NIN. Today in Nigeria, you can’t obtain a passport without NIN verification. We must apply the same standard to ensure accurate and adequate data of all employees enrolled in the scheme.”

He reiterated that the courtesy visit was aimed at deepening the partnership between the two agencies to increase efficiency and improve service delivery.

Explaining the ECS, Faleye stated:“The Employees’ Compensation Scheme is designed to provide compensation for employees who suffer injury, death, or disability in the course of work. A key component of delivering this service is identity verification and effective data management.”

The Managing Director, informed that a strong collaboration with NIMC would not only support access to the national identity database but also aid in identifying eligible individuals, not just for ECS, but for future, broader social security initiatives.

Faleye emphasized the importance of the partnership, stating that it will significantly improve the Fund’s ability to verify workers already captured under the ECS.

“Accurate and reliable data related to our operations will be invaluable. Beyond that, our collaboration will send a clear message—not just to stakeholders, but to the public—about the importance of integrating NIMC services across key service points,” he said.

He also noted that NIMC could assist NSITF in mapping out services, analyzing service demographics, and improving outreach and delivery.

Highlighting the potential impact of the initiative on the wider economy, Faleye stressed: “Having data is one thing; using it effectively to improve daily life is another. Unless data management entities collaborate with service providers to enable data access and real-life applications, that data has no real impact. That’s why this partnership is so important.”

He advocated for joint efforts in promoting technology and data inclusion across sectors.

In her response, the Director-General of NIMC, assured the NSITF of the Commission’s full support in actualizing the collaboration.

“We understand how critical this is for expanding access to services. This is what we do daily. We will immediately assign our IT team to work closely with your IT department to form a working group. Together, we can work out the technical aspects of this integration,” she said.

Coker-Odusote added: “I will personally set a timeline to ensure the integration is properly executed within a week. Once done, this will be added to our list of strategic achievements. We may even consider a joint press conference in the near future.”