NSITF nets  N180bn pension contributions

Please share

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) said it has generated N180 billion pension contributions in the last ten years.

The Managing Director of the organisation, Dr. Michael Akabogu, made this, at a media parley, in Abuja today

He said, “We have collected both from the private sector who have contributed about 80 percent of the total revenue and from the government and all other agencies.  We have raised about N180 billion over 10 years, from inception. July 2011-May 30th 2021”.

The MD said that the performance could have been much better if all eligible employers were committed to the scheme.

On the financial scandal that hit the NSITF recently, the MF said that mechanisms would be put in place to forestall a reoccurence.

“It will never happen again,” he said, adding, “in the next few months, we have to work together to ensure that our operations are automated so as to be able to cut off some of these little issues”.

He added, “some times people make payments but it doesn’t get to the state branches of the Fund because of some nuisances that disguise themselves as NSTIF officials and agencies.

“They send various mails using the name of NSITF and the people that fall pray to that send money to them thinking that they are our agents, these are some of the things we have to make sure that we cut down on.

“You might come across these ponzi schemes that ask people to pay money into an NSITF account after which the amount will be doubled. Those are not NSITF members.”

Dr. Akabogu “before we had a 14-day period – the time that the case is reported to the time that the payment is made we decided that we have to develop an electronic  platform which is currently in progress, that would enable us monitor the movement of the files, so instead of the 14 days, we are targeting 10-11 days. At least we will be able to shed off  three days”.

The MD promised to enforce remittances in order to halt the practice where contributions are deducted from employees by their employers but never remitted to NSITF.

His words, “if deductions are made from employees’ salaries, and not remitted, it is an offence that is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

“Over the years we have been using a persuasive method to get employers to pay fines for wrongful deductions from employees’ salaries, but now our legal arm has been activated, employers who refuse to pay fines will be taken to court and followed up to ensure that they pay what is due”.

Akabogu said that a list of defaulting employees was being compiled for appropriate prosecutions”.

The Head of Enforcement of the NSITF Mr. Lateef Musa disclosed that “the scheme has registered almost 200,000 employers generally but only 170,000 were actively making their contributions.

Related Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *