By Amin Kef Sesay
In a bid to fast track its operations country-wide the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) on Friday 13th September 2019 launched Project 54+ in the Pension hall of the West Region Office, Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown.
The launching was done by the institution’s Director General, Mohamed Fuaad Daboh.
Daboh registered his dogged commitment to re-direct the focus of the institution to the core business of operations and benefit payment. He further outlined the strides made by NASSIT to ensure that operations and benefit payment were put on track.
The Director General also dilated on recruitment of additional staff, provision of working tools, attachment of Regional Managers to a sister Social Security Institution within the sub region, visitation to complying institutions, operational review workshops, the establishment of a specialized social security court at the highest level of the Sierra Leone Judiciary system, the motivation of staff through promotion and special recognition.
He, however, lamented that in all of these the timely processing and payment of benefit was still a challenge for which he said, “both staff and members of the scheme are responsible for these challenges”.
He informed the gathering that in his quest to surmount these challenges, he held a stakeholders meeting at the Golden Tulip Kimbima hotel to chart the way forward. During the deliberations, according to the Director General, it was clear that in addition to the internal mechanism, the challenges could only be overcome by constructively engaging members of the Scheme; hence the birth of Project 54+.
Daboh expressed his belief that if Project 54+ are fully implemented and monitored, NASSIT would meet its set target days for the processing and payment of retirement, invalidity and survivors benefits and therefore called on staff to own and support the project for it to succeed.
Chairman for the occasion, Acting Director of Administration and Human Resource, Mr. Fadiru Koroma extolled the selflessness of the Director General in redirecting the focus of the institution. He assured him of the willingness of staff to support not only Project 54+ but also his move to rebrand the Scheme. “Your endeavors will not go in vain, we will stand by you in all your strides to make us succeed,” he concluded.
Project 54+ is a management strategy aimed at enhancing the timely processing and payment of benefit. It has as its core objective the identification of potential claimants of the NASSIT Retirement benefit (members between the ages of 54 and 59), correct their bio and financial data (addressing gaps in contributions), match pin codes with social security numbers (for employees on the Accountant General’s payroll), validate past services of qualified employees and update all relevant information to ensure timely and seamless benefit payment process.
