Matthew Otoijagha
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) had between 2017 and first quarter of 2019, issued pension compliance certificates to 34,349 companies to enable them bid government contracts, PenCom report has shown.
According to data obtained from PenCom, 13, 592 companies got compliance certificates in 2017; 16,100 firms, in 2018 and 4,657 certificates were issued to companies in the first quarter of this year.
The Commission posited that it had continued to apply various strategies to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014, adding that the strategies included the application of sanctions and collaboration with key stakeholders on public enlightenment campaigns, as well as engagement of defaulting employers via pension recovery agents employed to recover unremitted pension contributions.
“Further to the Commission’s strategy of driving compliance with the provisions of the PRA 2014 by employers through the conduct of public awareness programs, the Commission has continued to organize sensitization workshops on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for employers’ associations/unions to enlighten and encourage them to key into the Scheme.
“The Commission participated at the 12th delegate conference organized by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) which took place in Abuja. The Commission also sent a Goodwill message which was published in a compendium of Goodwill messages as part of the Conference documentation.
“Furthermore, the Commission received the Director General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and his Team for an in-focus meeting with the Acting Director General and officials of the Commission. The visit was in line with NECA’s commitment to deepening the existing cordial relations with the Commission.
‘‘This collaboration has facilitated the continuous progress on private sector participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme. During the meeting, NECA urged the Commission to sustain the annual interactive sessions between the Commission and the Organized Private Sector (OPS) in order to close the knowledge gap on the CPS for the Human Resource Practitioners and Finance Directors who are directly involved in handling pension matters at their various organizations,” it said.
PenCom noted that in the first quarter of this year, it received 6,630 applications for the issuance of compliance certificate out of which 4,657 certificates were issued, while 1,973 applications were declined due to non-remittance of pension contributions for the appropriate period and/or non-provision of Group Life Insurance Policy for the employees.
The pension industry regulator maintained that the sum of N45.90 billion was remitted to 105,382 employees’ RSAs by the 4,675 organizations that were issued with compliance certificates, with the period.