By Favour Nnabugwu

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has recovered N422.34 million from defaulting employers who failed to remit pension contributions by their employees to respective pension fund administrators (PFAs).

This is contained in the 2022 first-quarter report released by the commission on Tuesday. The figure is 30.6 percent lower than the commission’s recovery to the tune of N608.55 million in the first quarter of the preceding year.

PenCom said the amount comprises N124.89 million principal contribution and N295.45 million penalty.

It added that the sum was recovered from 23 defaulting employers during the quarter under review.

Meanwhile, it said six defaulting employers have been presented for appropriate legal action.

“Following the issuance of demand notices to defaulting employers whose pension liabilities were established by the recovery agents (RAs) appointed by the commission, the sum of N422.34 million representing principal contribution (N124.89 million) and penalty (N295.45 million) was recovered from 23 defaulting employers during the quarter under review,” the statement reads.

“The cumulative pension contributions from inception to the end of the first quarter of 2022 amounted to N7.77 trillion, which is an increase from N7.58 trillion as at the end of Q4 2021,” it added.

PenCom noted that the aggregate pension contributions of the public sector increased from N3.92 trillion in the last quarter of 2021 to N4.02 trillion at the end of Q1 2022.

Similarly, the aggregate pension contributions of the private sector increased from N3.66 trillion in Q4 2021 to N3.76 trillion at the end of Q1 2022

From January to March 2021, PenCom said it received a total of 11,200 applications from private sector organisations for the issuance of pension clearance certificates (PCCs).

“Out of this number, PCCs were issued to 10,541 organizations, while 659 applications were in the approval process as at March 31, 2022,” PenCom added.

“The records showed that the 10,541 organizations had remitted a total of N59.39 billion into the retirement savings accounts (RSAs) of their employees, totaling 45,170.”

The total value of pension fund assets as at March 31, 2022 was N13.88 trillion.

“The amount comprised of N9.81 trillion in RSA’ Active’ Funds (RSA Funds I, II, III and V); N1.10 trillion in RSA Retiree Fund (Fund IV); N1.54 trillion in CPFAs; N1.42 trillion in Approved Existing Schemes. Fund VI Active and Retiree Fund amounted to ₦23.16 billion,” it said.

The commission noted that employers are mandated to remit workers’ monthly pension contributions to their retirement savings account (RSA) for the exclusive purpose of providing retirement income