By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has announced the recovery of N608.6 million from 25 employers who deducted the monthly emoluments of their workers but did not remit to their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
This was disclosed by the commission in its first-quarter report for 2021, noting that the employers were fined N446.2 million during the period under review over failure to remit workers’ pensions.
The commission said: “Following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities had been established by the Recovery Agents, the sum of N608,554,747.59 representing principal contribution (N162,385,260.05) and penalty (N446,169,487.54) was recovered from 25 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.”
The PenCom’s report also noted that in the first quarter, 25 states of the federation had enacted pension laws on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), while seven states were at the bill stage.
According to it, out of the five states operating other pension schemes, four states had adopted the Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme, while one (Yobe State) operated the Defined Benefits Scheme.
In the Pension Reform Act 2014, employers are mandated to remit 18 per cent of the workers’ monthly emoluments, comprising 10 per cent contribution from the employer and eight per cent from the employee.
The body, however, vowed to continue the enhanced offsite monitoring and analysis of pension operators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dipo Olowookere