ABUJA, JULY 4, 2018 – The National Pension Commission (PenCom), has recovered unremitted contributions with interest penalty from the private sector amounting to N14billion.
The Acting Director General of the Commission, Mrs. Aisha Dahiru-Umar, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja yesterday, said the Commission has employed the services of funds recovery agents against defaulting employers in the private sector. She stated: “The activities of the agents from inception in 2012 to date has led to the recovery of N14 billion made up of N7.42 billion and N6.96 billion as pension contributions and interest penalty respectively.”
On the hurdles retirees go through before they get their pension, she said the phenomenon is peculiar only to employees of Federal Government, Treasury Funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as some State Governments”
According to her, “The main reason for the delay is the inadequate funding of the Retirement benefits Bond Redemption Fund (RBBRF) to pay the accrued rights (outstanding pension liabilities prior to the commencement of the contributory Pension Scheme in 2004) by the federal and affected state governments.” She said the Commission as in previous years submitted the total pension liability including estimates of the accrued pension rights for inclusion in the federal Government’s 2018 budget.
“The commission made all necessary follow-ups with the relevant government agencies to ensure that the estimates were appropriated to enable payment of the accrued pension liability”, she added.
In addressing the challenges of agencies pulling out of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), Dahiru-Umar said the federal Government has stopped any of its agencies from being exempted from the CPS with the exception of those already exempted from the scheme.
