Ndubuisi Francis and James Emejo in Abuja
The National PenCom Commission (PenCom) has said a total sum of N25.45 billion unremitted contributions was recovered from defaulting employers between 2012 and 2023.
PenCom Head, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Ibrahim Buwai, who disclosed the figures at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), over the weekend, said the recovery included the principal sum of N12.93 billion as well as penalties which amounted to N12.52 billion.
He said under the Pension Reforms Act, which remained the provision for enforcement, late remittances attract penalties and attract interest of two per cent monthly.
Buwai, further clarified that all such recoveries go directly into the affected RSA Holder Account. “Nobody takes a penny, not PFAs, not PenCom, nobody. All these money recovered were for RSA holders and it goes into RSA.”
According to him, “If you do that two per cent for every month that you default, a penalty for that amount will be computed.
“That is why when you look at our latest figure in terms of the recovery, from the inception of the exercise in 2012, you will see that the difference between the remittances and the penalty is almost neck to neck.
“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.
While also reassuring on the safety of pension funds, Buwai said the safety of pension assets remained the cardinal principles of PenCom regulations.
He said,” We are not wavering, we have not made it lax or easy. All those stringent guidelines that were thoroughly outlined so that pension funds might be protected in the event that these investment instruments might be available – those stringent requirements remain.
“All we know is that if the pension funds are available, pension funds managers will review and take their decisions.
“I have to also clarify that PenCom does not partake in investment issues on the pension funds.
“All we do as regulators is that we set out general guidelines as contained in our investment regulations.”
