The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said it recovered ₦553.03m from defaulting employers who deducted their workers monthly emoluments but failed to remit to their Retirement Savings Accounts with their respective pension fund administrators report has revealed.
Out of this amount, the principal contribution of the workers was ₦382.46m, while penalties of ₦170.57m was recovered through recovery agents.
Part of the report read, “Following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities had been established by the recovery agents, the sum of ₦553.03m representing principal contribution of ₦382.46m and penalties of ₦170.57m were recovered from 19 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.”
The Commission stated that during the period under review, the pension industry recorded a net marginal growth of 0.72 per cent (66,704) in schemes membership during the quarter under review, rising from 9.20 million contributors as at the end of the preceding quarter to 9.27 million as at Q4 2020.
The growth in the industry membership was driven by the RSA Scheme, which had an increase of 68,749 registered contributors.
However, it added, membership of the Closed Pension Fund Administrator Schemes declined by 2,045 to 14,926 while the Approved Existing Schemes membership remained unchanged at 40,951 as at Q4 2020.
In a related development, the Commission has sought the assistance of EFCC to help curb the menace of non-remittance of deducted pension contributions by some employers in the country.
Head of PenCom, North Central Zone, Mrs. Raafat Yishawu-Isiaku, sought the support when she visited Kazeem Oseni, Head of the North Central Zone of the EFCC in Ilorin.
She said the two agencies should collaborate in identifying and dealing with non-remittance of pension funds after organisations had deducted same from workers’ salaries.
Yishawu-Isiaku described non-remittance of deducted pension funds as criminal, adding that collaboration with the EFCC would assist PenCom to check the trend and enforce the relevant pension laws.
She also described regular remittance of contributions as an important aspect of compliance with the law.
Source: Punch, Worldstagegroup
