The Federal Executive Council has okayed 17 Group Life Assurance Underwriters for the President, Vice President, Chief of Staff to the President, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of federal civil service, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Federal Government workers.

Addressing newsmen on Monday after the FEC meeting at the State House, Abuja,

Head of Civil Service of the Federation, HOCS, Dr. Didi Easter Walson-Jack, said the approval for the 17 underwriters will cover 2025/2026 policy year, adding that the policy would commence from the date of payment of premium to underwriters in line with the no premium, no cover policy.

She further explained that the policy also covers paramilitary organisations like Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Fire Service, etc

Her words: ?I have the privilege to present the approval of the Federal Executive Council as regards the Group Life Assurance Scheme.

?This scheme underscores the importance that the President Bola Tinubu administration has placed on welfare of staff, specifically the welfare of the federal public servants, the Group Life Assurance Scheme is a scheme whereby the federal government has taken out a life policy on each public servant.

?And this means that if the unfortunate incident of death occurs, the deceased public servant?s next of kin stands to have a benefit to help the family cushion the family at that time of loss.

?This year, the group life assurance scheme covers key government officials, comprising Mr President, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ministers, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Permanent Secretaries and staff of federal government ministries and treasury funded agencies, that is the deep extra ministerial departments and agencies as well.

?The scheme also covers the para military agencies such as Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Nigeria Correctional Service, the Federal Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

?The Group Life Assurance Scheme is an annual one, and today?s approval was for the 2025/2026 policy year. The policy would commence from the date of payment of premium to underwriters in line with the no premium, no cover policy.

?I would like to just quickly take you through the actual approval for today. The approval for today was for the appointment of 17 insurance underwriters for the group life assurance cover and for the year 2025/ 2026 as I had earlier mentioned, and the premium is paid to the insurance companies for the duration of 12 months.

?So this policy will expire next year. I just like to say that in as much as this policy has existed throughout this administration and even previous administrations, we find that not too many people know about the policy, and so we have, from my office, even planned to carry out a sensitization, which will be coming up very soon.

?But I?m so happy to be given the opportunity today to talk about this policy, because this policy affects every public servant, including most of you seated here.

?So on this note, I?d like to thank you and to say that this administration has placed welfare of the public servant very highly, so that no deceased public officers family should be left without succour.?

FEC also directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,

Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, to strengthen/pass legislations that will criminalise usurpers of government assets under the cover of the night in the country.

This, according to the Council, is aimed at mitigating the unwholesome activities of scrap metal vendors, miners, and cart pushers, among others, who indulge in stealing critical government assets.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris who told newsmen after the meeting said council expressed concern over the development hence the decision to criminalise the activity.

According to him: ?There?s also a conversation, I mean, a discussion around some scrap metal vendors, or miners, or whatever you call them. We have seen an increased activity among people who unscrupulously go to steal some of these government assets on the road, by the bridges and, other critical metals that they take to go and sell.

?The federal government is already mulling the possibility of criminalizing this. Of course, we already have some of these laws in existence, but we are looking at them in in depth.

?And the Attorney General Federation has been directed to look at that. There?s an increased activity, you know, that government has noted where people go, especially in the cover of the night.

?They will remove some of this government assets, iron, metals and scraps, and then go to sell them to other individuals who in turn recycle them and bring them back to the market.

?Government feels very much concerned and is taking a closer look at how this can be mitigated going forward.

Council also approved a new national policy on employment generation for the country.

Under the new policy, new strategies to address the challenges of unemployment, poverty reduction and highlight economic opportunities for productive and employment of Nigerians will be unfolded.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, who made the disclosure to newsmen said, ?My memo is just one, but it?s a very important memo to the Labour sector in general. This memo has to do with, we have been able to get approval, to implement it, reduce it, then to send it to our stakeholders, IPD, status of policy, that this national policy on employment has been approved.

?Usually because of this long span of time regarding the reality on the ground, the ministry decided to initiate the review of this national policy on employment so as to show the need to develop new strategies which will address challenges of unemployment and address poverty, create the economic opportunities for productive and employment of Nigerians.

?In the next two or three weeks, we are going to the International Labour Organization meeting in Geneva, we will be very proud to tell our colleagues in other parts of the world that we have been able to review the national employment policy?. (THISDAY)

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