NIB launches online portal for employer contributions

NIB launches online portal for employer contributions
The National Insurance Board headquarters.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The National Insurance Board (NIB) yesterday announced the launch of a three-month pilot online employer self-service (ESS) portal aimed at eliminating the NIB contribution backlog.

According to NIB, the Employer’s Self-Service (ESS) portal is just the latest tool being piloted by the Board to improve its business processes for the many employers it serves.

Employers can log-on to the website to access the portal at any time to manage their NIB accounts, submit c10 contribution forms; make contribution payments using a debit/credit card (Visa or Mastercard only); and manage their employee  register,” the Board said in a release yesterday.

According to NIB, one of the key benefits is that the ESS will digitize and simplify the process of  submitting c10s and making contribution payments, from anywhere and at any time. This it said would allow employers to avoiding long lines and unnecessary trips to NIB.

“For NIB, the ESS will eventually prevent  contribution backlogs as employers can upload contributions directly into the system and eliminate the additional step of manual data entry by NIB personnel,” the statement read.

“The ESS portal puts  the employers in control and simplifies this process. Our goal is to eliminate contribution  backlogs, which is expected to result in a higher level of compliance in the future.”

NIB noted the Board commenced the v3 stabilization project in May 2018.

Since then, some 260,000 c10s was placed in the backlog processing  system. These represent backlogs from April 2016 to 31 October 2018; of which some  245,000 have been digitized and about 188,000 of these have been posted to Employers  and Employees accounts.

With the implementation of a special initiative geared toward  reducing the accumulation of excess contribution forms, this number was significantly reduced.

Director Nicola Virgill-Rolle noted the roll-out and eventual full implementation of the ESS portal is aligned with the Board’s newly developed five-year strategic plan, themed “Towards a Sustainable NIB 2019-2024: Creating a World Class  Organization”.

One of the key pillars of the Strategic Plan is “Providing Exceptional Customer Service”.

Rolle said: “At NIB, we recognize the need to effectively deliver services to our customers whether it is in-person, online or via telephone. NIB is therefore committed to customer engagement with the use of customer-  centric technology for an overall positive customer experience”.

There are 41 companies participating in the ESS portal pilot phase, which is expected to last  for a three (3) month period. These employers represent small, medium size and large companies with varying numbers of  employees and contribution payments amounts.