In a strategic move to modernize Nigeria’s employee compensation system, the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has entered into a partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to integrate workers’ data from the Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS) into the national identity database.
The initiative, announced by NSITF Managing Director, Oluwaseun Faleye, during a courtesy visit to NIMC’s Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, is expected to significantly enhance the efficiency, transparency, and security of claims processing under the ECS.
Integrating Bio-data with National Identity Numbers
Faleye highlighted the importance of linking employees’ bio-data with their National Identity Numbers (NIN) as a critical step toward streamlining employee verification and validation processes. This integration, he said, would serve not just to prevent fraud but also to ensure that benefits reach the right individuals on time.
“Today in Nigeria, to get a passport, your NIN must be verified. We must adopt the same measure to seamlessly collect adequate and accurate data of all employees under the scheme,” Faleye stated.
He stressed that the ECS functions as a safety net for workers who suffer injuries, disabilities, or death in the line of duty, and accurate identification is central to delivering on that mandate.
Expanding the Reach of Social Security
The NSITF boss noted that this partnership goes beyond just the ECS. With access to NIMC’s national database and its expansive reach across the country, the Fund can now identify and enroll more eligible Nigerians into current and future social security programs.
“The collaboration will help improve our database management and overall operational efficiency,” he said. “NIMC’s data collection efforts provide valuable demographic insights that will help us optimize our services.”
He described the partnership as a critical step toward enhancing service delivery, improving claim validation, and reducing fraud through better identification mechanisms.
NIMC Commits to Rapid Integration
In response, NIMC’s Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, pledged full institutional support for the integration effort, citing its national importance. She confirmed that NIMC would immediately initiate collaboration between both organizations’ IT departments to form a technical working group that will finalize the integration framework.
“We will definitely hand your IT team over to our own IT group so they can start working together immediately. We’re setting a timeline of one week to complete the integration,” Odusote assured.
She described the initiative as a milestone collaboration that aligns with national goals of digitization, data security, and service efficiency.
NIMC’s Progress on NIN Enrollment
The announcement comes on the heels of recent progress made by NIMC in curbing corruption and expanding NIN coverage. Earlier in May, Coker-Odusote revealed that the Commission had reduced extortion and corruption in the NIN enrollment process by at least 40% and had successfully enrolled over 120 million Nigerians into the national identity database.
She attributed part of this progress to the Commission’s collaboration with the World Bank under the Nigeria Identification for Development (ID4D) project, which has boosted enrollment infrastructure across the country.
A Modernized Social Security Vision
With this new partnership, the NSITF and NIMC are laying the groundwork for a more integrated, digital-first approach to managing social welfare in Nigeria. The move is poised to strengthen Nigeria’s social security framework, improve data integrity, and provide more timely and equitable compensation for workers nationwide.
As the working group begins its task, stakeholders are hopeful that this collaboration will serve as a model for other government institutions seeking to harness the power of data integration and national identity systems.
