NASSIT to provide social security for the informal sector
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Social Security and Insurance Trust [NASSIT], Mr. Jacob Sylvester Kanu, has said that they intend to manage the pension scheme in Sierra Leone where they will promote, among other things, old age comfort and recognize that the informal sector and domestic workers need to be comforted and protected.
Addressing the two days Consultative Conference for Informal Economy Workers at the British Council Hall at Tower Hill in Freetown on Wednesday, December 11 this year, he revealed that they are very hard to redress the imbalance by designing projects top address the issue.
He explained that the conference will examine the contribution of informal workers of the nation’s economy.
He maintained that are developing a National Social Insurance for all workers in the country.
The conference was organized by the Sierra Leone Labour Congress, in conjunction with the Danish Trade Union Council for International Cooperation and the International Labour Organization.
In his statement, the President of the Sierra Leone Labour Congress, Mr. M.A. Deen, reminded the gathering that a large portion of the country’s workforce are engaged in the informal economy and are mostly women and youths.
He noted that the informal economy serves as the outlet for those who are unable to find paid employment in the formal economy, as they take up whatever work that is available in the informal economy where they generally work long hours with no security and low income that is not sufficient to extricate them and their families from poverty.
He further maintained that the informal economy on the whole cannot provide decent work as it is not secured, protected nor recognized in national budgets to enable the workers receive support from government.
He stressed that those in the informal sector suffer a lot because they are normally left out of the national social security arrangements, lack the appropriate technology and relevant skills, cannot get access to loans and are mostly unable to upgrade their operations.
He further emphasized that they are hardly able to organize for effective representation and therefore have no voice in public affairs.
By Abdulai Mento Kamara
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