RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Start­ing this week, cit­i­zens can ac­cess Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) ser­vices on­line as the agency be­gins the roll­out of its Em­pow­er Dig­i­ti­za­tion Project, which is set to be ful­ly op­er­a­tional by Sep­tem­ber.

Speak­ing at the open­ing of the NIB’s South Head­quar­ters in San Fer­nan­do last Wednes­day, Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of the NIB, Niala Per­sad-Po­li­ah, high­light­ed the sig­nif­i­cance of this trans­for­ma­tion say­ing it will trans­form how the NIB in­ter­acts with the pub­lic, en­hanc­ing ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and con­ve­nience.

Per­sad-Po­li­ah said the Em­pow­er ini­tia­tive will in­tro­duce a cen­tralised plat­form, which will serve as the back­bone of the NIB’s op­er­a­tions. She ex­plained that it aims to im­prove ser­vice de­liv­ery, en­hance cit­i­zen en­gage­ment, and build a more da­ta-dri­ven so­cial in­sur­ance sys­tem.

“Very soon, cus­tomers will have the con­ve­nience of sub­mit­ting da­ta elec­tron­i­cal­ly, mak­ing elec­tron­ic pay­ments, view­ing their con­tri­bu­tion records, sub­mit­ting claims, up­dat­ing their in­for­ma­tion, and so much more right from the com­fort of their mo­bile phones or com­put­ers, any­where, any­time,” Per­sad-Po­li­ah re­vealed.

For those who pre­fer in-per­son as­sis­tance, she said the NIB’s new­ly opened cor­po­rate head­quar­ters in San Fer­nan­do was now avail­able. 

She not­ed that the roll­out of Em­pow­er will be­gin as ear­ly as this week with the on­board­ing of em­ploy­ers. 

By June, new in­sur­ance ap­pli­ca­tions will be on­line, fol­lowed by em­ploy­er por­tals in Ju­ly and em­ploy­ee or per­son­al por­tals in Au­gust.

This project, Per­sad-Po­li­ah said, is a bold step to­wards en­hanc­ing the NIB’s ser­vice and trans­form­ing how it op­er­ates for decades to come. 

“The NIB’s ef­forts align with the agency’s long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to serv­ing the pub­lic, par­tic­u­lar­ly the most vul­ner­a­ble sec­tors of so­ci­ety. We are proud to be here in San Fer­nan­do, and our new head­quar­ters stand as a sym­bol of sta­bil­i­ty, trans­for­ma­tion, and na­tion­al pride,” Per­sad-Po­li­ah stat­ed. 

She not­ed that the NIB’s digi­ti­sa­tion project comes at a time when the NIB is cel­e­brat­ing 53 years of ser­vice to 200,000 ben­e­fi­cia­ries month­ly with a pay­out of $6 bil­lion an­nu­al­ly.

Mean­while, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Vish­nu Dhan­paul, who al­so spoke at the event, em­pha­sised the NIB’s role in the coun­try’s so­cial sta­bil­i­ty. He shared sta­tis­tics show­ing the NIB’s wide reach and its im­pact on the econ­o­my.

“The NIB serves over 200,000 re­cip­i­ents each month and process­es about 40,000 claims every year through 14 ser­vice cen­tres across the coun­try,” Dhan­paul said.

He point­ed out that the NIB is a key part of the coun­try’s fi­nan­cial sys­tem, with its as­sets reach­ing $28.5 bil­lion by the end of fis­cal 2024.

“The ben­e­fit pay­ments reached $6.5 bil­lion and were dis­trib­uted to over 226,000 peo­ple, with a 5.4 per cent in­crease in spend­ing from the pre­vi­ous year,” Dhan­paul added.

He ex­plained that long-term ben­e­fits like re­tire­ment, in­va­lid­i­ty, and sur­vivors’ pen­sions made up 89 per cent of the to­tal ben­e­fi­cia­ries and 96 per cent of the to­tal spend­ing.

“Re­tire­ment pen­sions alone ac­count­ed for $5.2 bil­lion, or 83 per cent of long-term ben­e­fits pay­ments. Short-term and em­ploy­ment in­jury ben­e­fits to­talled $193 mil­lion.”

Dhan­paul con­tin­ued, “The NIB is fo­cused on main­tain­ing liq­uid­i­ty to meet ris­ing de­mand. With­drawals in fis­cal 2024 to­talled $1.9 bil­lion, a 30 per cent in­crease from the pre­vi­ous year. This de­mand chal­lenges port­fo­lio growth and high­lights the need for care­ful in­vest­ment strate­gies that bal­ance liq­uid­i­ty and long-term growth.”

He reaf­firmed the gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the NIB’s funds. “Through on­go­ing ac­tu­ar­i­al re­views and pol­i­cy re­forms, we are work­ing to se­cure the fund for the next 50 years and be­yond,” he said.