PenCom Recovers N10billion Pension Contribution

The National Pension Commission, PenCom,has recovered over N10 billion unremitted pension contributions in principal and interest penalty.

The Commission would soon kick off pension audit of the books of over 200,000 existing employers in the country to determine those who failed to remit the mandatory 18 per cent pension contributions of workers to their Retirement Savings Account held by their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) the Nation learnt

Section 3 subsection (1) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 states that there is an established law for any employer in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to have a Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for payment of retirement benefits of employees to whom the scheme applies under the Act.

Section 4 subsection (1) states that the contribution for any employee shall be a minimum of 10 per cent by the employer and a minimum of eight per cent by the employee.

Section 11 subsection (1) states that every employee shall maintain a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) in his name with any PFA of his choice.

Subsection (3) states that the employer shall deduct at source the monthly contribution of the employee; and not later than seven working days from the day the employee is paid his salary; remit an amount comprising the employee’s contribution and the employer’s contribution to the Pension Fund Custodian specified by the PFA of the employee.

PenCom Head, Compliance and Enforcement, Alhaji Umar in an interview, said the commission decided to set up the pension audit system to complement its ongoing processes of ensuring compliance by employers in the country.

According yo him, the processes include engaging employers through warning letters, imposing two per cent monetary penalty on unremitted contributions, naming and shaming of erring employers and seeking litigation against them.