The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is tightening enforcement against employers who fail to remit workers’ pension contributions, introducing an automated system to calculate penalties as total recoveries from defaulting employers reached ₦36.6 billion by July 2026.
Omolola Oloworaran, PenCom Director-General, disclosed this on Tuesday at the commission’s 2026 Annual Media Conference in Abuja, where she said the new system would strengthen compliance with the Pension Reform Act.
Under the system, penalties are automatically calculated for employers seeking a Pension Clearance Certificate (PCC). Employers with outstanding pension remittances will be unable to obtain the certificate until they settle the required penalties and meet their obligations.
Oloworaran said the commission was monitoring employers who withhold pension contributions deducted from workers’ salaries, as well as those who fail to remit contributions within the stipulated period.
She stressed that deductions reflected on a worker’s payslip must be paid into the employee’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA), describing any failure to do so as a breach of trust and a violation of the law.
“We will find what is owed, we will recover it, and we will hold those responsible to account,” she said.
The commission’s latest enforcement measures follow previous recovery operations targeting employers with outstanding pension obligations. In July 2026, PenCom, working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), announced the recovery of ₦3 billion in unremitted pension contributions from employers in the electricity sector.
PenCom has also expanded enforcement efforts through its collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). In May, the NLC Lagos Council announced plans to work with the commission to enforce pension remittance requirements against defaulting employers, with operations scheduled to begin on June 1.
Oloworaran further disclosed that pension compliance requirements had been extended to commercial relationships involving pension operators and their business partners.
She said the commission was seeking to widen pension coverage and improve compliance, noting the importance of ensuring that workers’ retirement savings grow sufficiently amid mounting financial pressures on households.
PenCom’s recovery efforts have yielded significant sums in previous years. According to figures disclosed by Oguche Agudah, Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), the commission recovered ₦4.57 billion from defaulting employers between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
The recovered amount comprised ₦2.12 billion in outstanding pension contributions and ₦2.45 billion in penalties imposed on 138 employers.
The introduction of automated penalty calculations signals a more technology-driven approach to enforcement, potentially making it harder for employers with outstanding pension obligations to obtain clearance certificates.
For workers, effective enforcement is critical because delayed or withheld contributions can undermine the growth of retirement savings and weaken confidence in Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme.
