19 erring employers pay N553m penalties, contributions – Nineteen employers who failed to remit pension contributions promptly have been forced to pay contributions and penalties of N553 million in fourth quarter of last year.
The National Pension Commission made this known in a report obtained by The Nation.
The Director-General of commission, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, stated that the payment was made following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities had been established by the Recovery Agents (RAs) appointed by the commission.
She said the cash, representing principal contributions of N382.4 million and penalties of N170.5 million, were recovered from the defaulting employers during the quarter under review.
In the same vein, she said the commission refunded pension contributions to Military personnel and state security agencies employees who were exempted from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
She said during the quarter under review, the commission approved the refund of N2.78 billion to 50 personnel of the military and other security agencies.
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On the tranfer of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund’s (NSITF) members’ contributions to their Retirement Saving Account (RSA), she said: “The commission received transfer applications on behalf of 190 NSITF contributors and granted approval for transfer of the sum of N188.97 million to their RSAs during the quarter under review.
“During the quarter under review, the commission granted approval for payment of monthly pensions in the sum of N62.2 million to 3,628 NSITF pensioners,” she added.
She also said: “The pension industry recorded a net marginal growth of 0.72 per cent, representing 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, membership of the Closed Pension Fund Administrator (CPFA) schemes declined by 2,045 to 14,926 while the Approved Existing Schemes (AESs) membership remained unchanged at 40,951 as at Q4 2020.
“The total pension contributions remitted to the RSAs in the fourth quarter of 2020 stood at N167.74 billion. Out of this total, the public sector accounted for N86.93 billion or 51.81 per cent while the private sector contributed N80.81 billion or 48.18 per cent.
“The cumulative pension contributions received from both the public and private sectors from inception to the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, therefore, amounted to N6.70 trillion, up from the N6.54 trillion as at the end of the third quarter 2020, representing a growth of 2.45 per cent.”