Presidential Research & Communications Unit

The Federal Government has inaugurated a National Working Committee on Social Security Policy for Nigeria.

The ceremony was performed in Abuja on Thursday April 16 by Labour and Productivity minister, Mr Adetokunbo Kayode.

According to the Minister, the inauguration of the national working committee on social security is informed by the urgent need to ensure that the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) executes its mandate of delivering social security to the poor.

The committee, headed by former Head of State, Dr Yakubu Gowon, has the task of:

• Drafting a holistic national social security policy that will take into cognizance the formal and informal sectors of the economy,
• Recommending a robust and sustainable financing options and
• Recommending an administrative structure for the implementation of an integrated national social security scheme with a view to harmonizing the overlapping functions of agencies, departments and ministries.

Also Government has on Thursday in Abuja inaugurated a Presidential Taskforce to overhaul the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for more efficiency and effectiveness.
Finance minister, Dr Mansur Mukhtar, who inaugurated the committee, urged members to transform the service into a modern institution that would enhance revenue generation, facilitate trade and curb smuggling.

Dr Muktar said the present administration was committed to making the NCS play its statutory role in a more efficient manner consistent with the country's changing objectives and global demands and also make the necessary reforms of the NCS that previous administrations have failed to do.

He said the taskforce was mandated to oversee the implementation of an agreed action plan for structural transformation of the Customs Service.

This, he added, was to make the Nigerian Customs Service an efficient, world-class organisation, adding that this would involve an overhaul of governance, organisational and leadership structures, systems, processes and procedures.

The taskforce, chaired by a former Comptroller General of the Service, Dr Haliru Bello, would also make recommendations to the Customs Board with regards to recruitment, promotion, discipline, retirement and dismissal of officers.

The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Bernard- Shaw Nwadialo, stressed the need for trade liberalisation and promised to assist the taskforce to ensure success in the discharge of its assignment.