By Amin Kef Sesay
On Tuesday, 21st July, 2020 the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) and the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) launched a nationwide sensitisation programme for the military at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters on Tower Hill in Freetown.
Director General of NASSIT, Mohamed Fuaad Daboh in his statement stated that he is passionate about the RSLAF as they are key players in ensuring that the Trust fulfils its mandate of providing social security protection for the people of Sierra Leone.
He said several meetings have been held between his institution and the military in a bid to draw up a nationwide sensitisation programme for the RSLAF to not only educate officers of the military, but also to address some of the problems they were encountering in their dealings with the Trust, such as the irregular update of members’ statements, restrained access to benefits by retirees, and discrepancies in the personal details of members, among others.
Mr. Daboh called on members to submit their true and correct personnel details for onward printing of statements of accounts so that they would be able to know the level of contributions they had made and also provide them the necessary information relating to their contributions.
“We have also introduced Project 54+ which primary mandate is to interface with our customers from both the public and private sectors in order to ensure that members’ data are up-to-date before they apply for their benefits,” the Director General stated.
The Deputy Minister of Defence, Col. Mauna Massaquoi, who sat in for the Minister of Defence, extolled the Director General and entire NASSIT Staff for working assiduously to ensuring effective service delivery.
He outlined some of the challenges the RSLAF is facing with NASSIT which include the misplacement and mismatch of names, wrong Social Security numbers, double registration, gaps in contributions, provision of statements of accounts and inadequate sensitisation to the RSLAF.
On his part, the Director General of the Ministry of Defence, Mr. Mohamed Daboh, who also served as Chairman for the occasion, registered his thanks and appreciation to the Director General of NASSIT and his team for honouring their request to sensitise the RSLAF members on the NASSIT Scheme.
He said such an interface between the two institutions will help address most of the operational concerns and pave the way forward for a smooth relationship. He called on the personnel to treat the interaction with the attention it demands and raise all concerns they might have.
The session ended with a presentation from NASSIT and an interactive session between NASSIT officials and RSLAF personnel.
