The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has said it recovered N2.55 billion pensions deducted by employers from employees’ monthly emoluments in 2021 but not remitted to the Retirement Savings Accounts with their respective Pension Fund Administrators.
Data obtained from PenCom’s latest quarterly report on Thursday showed that the recovery included unremitted contributions and sanctions.
PenCom also disclosed its plan to take legal action against some of the employees.
It said in its fourth-quarter report, “Following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities were established by the recovery agents, the sum of N984.million representing principal contribution (N406.42million) and penalty (N577.87million) was recovered from 36 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.
“Meanwhile, 18 defaulting employers have been recommended for appropriate legal action.”
The Commission, in its Q3 report, said, “Following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities were established by the recovery agents, the sum of N559.35m representing principal contribution (N394.79m) and penalty (N164.56m) was recovered from 28 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.
“Meanwhile, 29 defaulting employers have been recommended for appropriate legal action.”
PenCom’s Q2 report added that the sum of N398.01 million, representing principal contribution (N243.4million) and penalty (N154.61million), was recovered from 31 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.
In Q1, the sum of N608.55 million, representing principal contribution (N162.39million) and penalty (N446.17million), was recovered from 25 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.
PenCom said to boost compliance, it carried out sensitisation workshops, capacity-building programmes, and stakeholder engagement meetings during the fourth quarter.
It said the activities included a meeting with four pioneer PFAs managing a majority of the RSAs of employees of Kaduna State to review the solutions proposed by the PFAs and Kaduna State to address the accrued rights liabilities owed to the retired and disengaged employees of the state.
PenCom said it conducted various workshops on the developments in the Contributory Pension Scheme for a number of public and private sector organisations across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
It said, “The commission participated at the 2021 Lagos International Trade Fair organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Lagos State Government.
“The fair provided the opportunity to sensitise members of the public on the workings of the Micro Pension Plan as well as respond to other inquiries on the CPS.”