The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has announced efforts to recover over ₦1.3 billion in outstanding pension contributions owed by newspaper organisations to their employees.
The Director General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed on Monday during a strategic visit to the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) headquarters in Abuja. She expressed deep concern over the widespread non-compliance with the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 within the media industry.
In a bid to tackle the issue, PenCom and the Nigerian Press Council have established a collaborative framework aimed at compelling defaulting media organisations to settle their pension liabilities.
According to Oloworaran, the PRA 2014 mandates employers to remit monthly pension contributions into employees’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) no later than seven days after the payment of salaries. However, numerous media houses have failed to comply with this legal obligation.
“PenCom has deployed Recovery Agents to audit defaulters, assess their outstanding liabilities, and apply necessary sanctions. Our current enforcement drive is not only aggressive but historic, as this is the first time we are engaging the media sector at such a high level,” Oloworaran said.
She stressed that journalists, as critical drivers of transparency and accountability, deserve to retire with dignity. “It is only right that media establishments lead by example by fulfilling their obligations under the law,” she added.
Oloworaran also called on the Nigerian Press Council to support advocacy efforts, emphasising that pension contributions are a crucial safety net against poverty in old age. “Pension is a cornerstone of our social security system, and both the public and private sectors must treat it with the seriousness it deserves,” she said.
In response, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Press Council, Dili Ezughah, pledged the Council’s full support and commitment to addressing the issue. He described the situation as a major threat to the welfare of journalists and vowed to escalate the matter to relevant stakeholders, including the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE).
Both parties agreed to set up a joint working group comprising representatives from PenCom and the Press Council to ensure a swift resolution of the matter and foster long-term compliance across the media sector.
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