The Head, Corporate Communications, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Peter Aghahowa has disclosed that the corporation has recovered N465.02 million outstanding pension contributions from defaulting employers.
In a statement made available to the public, Aghahowa said the N465.02 million consisted of principal contributions of N335.70 million and penalty of N129.32 million.
“…This brought the total recovery by the commission to N14.38 billion which comprised principal contribution of N7.48 billion and penalty of N6.96 billion.
“Following the issuance of demand notices on defaulting employers whose liabilities had been established by agents, some employers remitted their outstanding pension contributions and paid corresponding penalties.” – Aghahowa
Pension Reform Act
The Pension Reform Act of 2014 prescribed a fine of not less than 2% on employers that fails to remit pension contributions to their respective pension fund adminstrators, according to section 11 (6 – 7) and 24 (d) of the Act.
The Pension Reform Act of 2014 which was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan, repealed the Pension Reform Act of 2004.
The new Act came with some key changes which include an increase in the minimum number of employees required to make contributions, increase in the minimum contribution into the Scheme and the imposition of fines and penalties on Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) for failure to meet their obligations to contributors and violation of the provisions of the Act.
The main objectives of the 2014 Pension Reform Act are to ensure that Nigerian employees, whether in the private or public sector, save in preparation for retirement and
receive adequate retirement benefits as and when due.
To ensure that this happens, the Act has taken a stronger stance to protect the participants under the Scheme and ensure enough funds are available for them at retirement.
Thank you Damilare Famuyiwa for this post, it was really timely. I’ve been an ardent reader of Nairamatrics for over a year now and would like your advice please. I left my former work place (September 2014 – May 2018) and my former employer only paid 4 months (instead of 45 months) worth of pension contribution into my PFA Account, despite continuous declarations to PENCOM. Kindly advice by a reply or to my email (temi.toba@tcahub.com) on how best to proceed on how to proceed to recover these amounts. Kind regards.