According to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), defaulting employers were required to pay N25.45 billion in unremitted contributions between 2012 and 2023.
At the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) Annual General Meeting (AGM) this past weekend, Mr. Ibrahim Buwai, Head of PenCom’s Corporate Communications Department, revealed the figures.
He stated that N12.93 billion in principal as well as N12.52 billion in fines were recovered.He noted that late payments are subject to fines and two percent interest per month under the Pension Reforms Act, which is still in effect.
Buwai went on to say that all of these recoveries are deposited straight into the RSA Holder Account in question. Nobody accepts payment—not PenCom, nor PFAs—at all. All of the money that was recovered belonged to RSA holders and was invested in RSA.
He said, “A penalty for that amount will be computed if you do that two percent for each month that you default.
“For this reason, you will notice that the difference between the penalty and the remittances is about equal when you look at our most recent recovery figure from the exercise’s start in 2012.
“We have the issue of employers not remitting. The second issue is that employers remitted but if there is no company schedule that shows the employers that these monies belong to Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs), they cannot apportion to RSA holders.
“We are not happy and that is why in 2023, we put out a statement on it and on our website, we have a long list of remittances that we saw were uncredited, calling on the people concerned to come forward and make sure the remittances are done.”
According to him, “From the inception of these recovery agents programmes in 2012 to December 31, 2023, the principal contributions that were recovered were about N12.9 billion while the penalty was about N12.5 billion.
So, you can see that it’s almost 50-50. All this is what has been recovered from employers and paid into RSAs.“The good thing is that all this penalty and principal goes into the individual RSA account.
“Nobody takes a penny, not PFAs, not PenCom, nobody. All these money recovered were for RSA holders and it goes into RSA.“What you can help us by way of employers is that it is not in their interests not to remit because it is cheaper to remit than not to remit.
Buwai stated that the security of pension assets continued to be the fundamental tenet of PenCom regulations, while also providing comfort over the protection of pension funds.