On Wednesday, July 14, 2021, the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) engaged the National Youth Service (NYS) to discuss issues relating to payment of corps members’ contributions and other relevant issues.
The meeting took place at NYS conference room, Stadium Hostels in Freetown.
Explaining the purpose of the meeting, the acting General Manager Operations at NASSIT, Edwin Mohamed Kamara, explained that the purpose of their visit was to collaborate with NYS with the view to ensuring that MDAs and private institutions start paying their contribution for corps members deployed at their institutions.
He explained they have been encouraging their partners to pay NASSIT contributions for their employees and NYS shouldn’t be an exception as it has the potential to transform intern graduate to permanent employees.
“We want to ensure social collaboration. We want them to be part of the scheme from the period of their placement so that their benefits ratio will increase when they gain permanent jobs and also when they retired. Hence, you are concerned with their welfare, we are also concerned with their benefit,” he said.
As information correctness has been a challenge, the acting General Manager used the occasion to caution workers to be updating their statuses with NASSIT when they make changes to their information.
He added that, “We also have challenges with consistencies and correctness in our records due to different information in your documents.”
Mr. Kamara therefore assured that they will go by the available NYS data and follow where corps members are deployed and ask the institutions to start paying their NASSIT contributions.
Making his contribution, the Regional Office Coordinator at NASSIT, Mohamed Sam, said that according to the NASSIT Act, corps members are supposed to pay their NASSIT contribution whether they are receiving stipend or whatsoever.
“We believed that these people you are dealing with are covered by the NASSIT Act and if we do not cover them, that means, we are infringing on their rights,” he said.
In his response, the Executive Director of NYS, Mohamed Ornanah Jalloh, started off by explaining that Section 40 of the NYS Act says that the institutions where corps members are deployed are supposed to pay their stipend.
He said he was happy that NASSIT has brought up the idea, stressing that NYS wants young graduates to benefit from the NASSIT scheme.
“We are hoping to increase our recruitment to make it more beautiful, but the Ministry of Finance is worried about the increase in our recruitment. For the current batch, we have paid their six months stipend but Ministry of Finance is seeing NYS as a burden,” he explained.
The vibrant Executive Director said even though some institutions are giving stipend to corps members, some have refused them stipend, adding that, “Sending our corps members to institutions and also asking them to pay 5% as NASSIT contribution is somehow critical.”
OJ, as he is fondly called expressed that, they do not only have the burden to beg institutions to take their corps members but also have the burden to canvass institutions to be paying NASSIT contributions for them.
Meanwhile, at the end of the meeting, it was unanimously agreed that both NASSIT and NYS engage the Ministry of Finance and Accountant Generals office on Thursday, July 22, 2021 to discuss the issue for further actions.
By NYS Communications Unit
