By Joan Nwagwu
Mr Oluwaseun Faleye, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), has urged staff to prioritise customer satisfaction, empathy and excellent service delivery to strengthen public trust.
Faleye gave the advice on Tuesday while declaring the 2026 Customer Service Week open in Abuja.
He said this year’s theme, “Go The Extra Mile,” should become a permanent work ethic for all staff, rather than a slogan observed only during the celebration.
“As the theme says, we go the extra mile. I urge you this week, this month and of course going forward to go the extra mile for not only ourselves internally as we collaborate to make our service to our customers out there ” he said.
Faleye said sustained excellent service delivery would improve public perception of the Fund while giving staff personal satisfaction from serving Nigerians effectively.
“Going the extra mile will give us the extra edge. The extra edge in terms of how people perceive us, how people experience NSITF and of course the extra edge in terms of personal satisfaction knowing that you are doing your best for people,” he said.
The NSITF boss described the Fund’s mandate as sensitive, stressing that members of staff must demonstrate empathy and understanding when attending to injured workers, employers and dependants.
“You know, the sort of service that we deliver is very important and sometimes quite paternal in nature. And it means that we must show empathy, we must show sensitivity and understanding when we deal with people,” he said.
He urged staff to sustain the momentum beyond the celebration, noting that consistent improvements in customer service were essential to strengthening the Fund’s performance and public confidence.
“I don’t want us to just use the moment, the week, the month as a customer service oriented period and afterwards go back to our usual status.
“I want us to keep that momentum, sustain that momentum going forward because it is through a sustained and enhanced customer service delivery that we can be better,” Faleye said.
According to him, internal collaboration explains that effective service delivery required cooperation among departments to ensure satisfactory services for customers.
“I don’t want you to see this customer service as an external facing matter. Inspection and audit, compliance, claims departments, we are all customers to each other in providing service to the ultimate customer out there,” he said.
He added that how staff treated colleagues from other departments could influence the quality of service ultimately delivered to external customers.
“So how you treat your colleague from another department that has come to ask for something that will impact how the customer out there sees us,” he said.
The managing director noted that staff efforts under challenging circumstances and assured them that management would continue providing the necessary tools to improve efficiency and service delivery.
“We will continue to evolve. We will continue to provide the necessary tools for you to do those things in a much more efficient manner,” he assured.
Faleye expressed satisfaction with the reported improvement in public perception of the Fund over the past two years, expressing optimism that sustained commitment would produce better results.
“I am glad to say that in the last couple of months, in the last year or two, we’ve seen an increase in the better perception of what we can do, how we can do better and we will do better. So with an extra mile, we will get there,” he added.
He commended staff for their dedication and wished them a successful Customer Service Week, Month and Year.
He also noted that as part of the celebration, the Fund has scheduled a cultural day for Wednesday, Oct. 14, and the Managing Director’s Football Cup match for Thursday.
He added that the Customer Service Week is an annual global event observed during the first full week of October to promote customer service and recognise the contributions of customer service professionals.
