Wednesday, October 29, 2025
29 C
Lagos

PenCom Moves to Recover N1.3bn Pension Contributions for Journalists

From left: Dr. Dili Ezughah, Executive Secretary, Nigerian press Council and the Director General of the National Pension Commission, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran during a recent working visit to the Council.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has stated that newspaper organisations are owing over ₦1.3 billion in unpaid pension contributions for journalists in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the Director General of PenCom, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, who led a delegation to the Nigerian Press Council in Abuja. Ms. Oloworaran expressed concerns over widespread non-compliance with the Pension Reform Act 2014 (PRA 2014) among media establishments.

Consequently, PenCom and the Nigerian Press Council have entered into a strategic collaboration to prevail on newspaper organisations to settle the huge pension liabilities owed to their employees.

The PRA 2014 mandates that employers remit monthly pension contributions into employees’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) no later than seven days after salary payments.

According to the PenCom DG, many media houses have failed to adhere to this requirement, prompting the Commission to assign Recovery Agents to audit and determine their outstanding pension debts and applicable penalties.

Recently, the PenCom DG has been leading an aggressive enforcement drive, building strategic partnerships with regulatory agencies aimed at recovering unpaid pension contributions from organisations running into billions of Naira.

However, the focus on the media sector is highly significant being the first time of conducting such high-level engagements towards resolving the lingering issue.

Oloworaran said journalists deserve to retire with dignity as they play a vital role in ensuring accountability across the public and private sectors. Media organisations, in turn, must lead by example by fulfilling pension obligations to their employees.

She appealed to the Nigerian Press Council for support in advocating compliance within the media sector, emphasising that pension contributions are a critical safeguard against old age poverty. “Pension is a vital component of our social security system, and even the government has begun to take it more seriously,” she added.

In response, the Nigerian Press Council Executive Secretary, Dr. Dili Ezughah, pledged the Council’s support and commitment to addressing the issue.

Dr. Ezughah said the Nigerian Press Council would escalate the matter to relevant stakeholders, including the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors, highlighting the significant impact of unpaid pensions on journalists’ welfare.

He decried the failure of media organisations to remit pension contributions as a significant challenge in the Nigerian media industry.

The discussions culminated in the establishment of a joint working group of PenCom and the Nigerian Press Council tasked with ensuring a speedy resolution of the issue.

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Hot this week

NGX Group Chair, Umaru Kwairanga, Draws Roadmap for Leadership in Nigeria

   Being the remarks by Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru Kwairanga, Group...

NCRIB to Partner State Govts to Drive Insurance Penetration in Nigeria

L-R: Mr. Tope Adaramola, Executive Secretary; Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe,...

OPay – From Payment Platform to Lifestyle Ecosystem

By Moses Braimah Out of curiosity, I decided to spend...

Dangote and the Nigeria Refinery Revolution

  Beyond the Monopoly Myths By Moses Braimah When the Dangote...

Anambra Tops 2025 State of States Fiscal Performance Ranking

BudgIT, Nigeria’s leading civic-tech organisation promoting fiscal transparency and...

Topics

Digital Inclusion: Bridging the Digital Divide by 2030

Professor Umar Danbatta Executive Vice-Chairman Nigerian Communications Commission The International Telecommunication Union...

Sustained Sell Offs Pull YTD Return into Negative Region… NSE ASI Down 1.3%

Sustained sell offs in the local bourse, which have persisted...

Danbatta Receives APPON Award, Assures of Broadband Support for e-Procurement

L-R: Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer,...

Why Celestine Omehia Deserves No Pity

By Haniel Ukpaukure Did he not see it coming? I’d...

140m People in Africa Facing Climate Change Migration by 2050

People move for many reasons – economic, social, and...

Buhari Extends Medical Vacation, Fails to Return

President Muhammadu Buhari has sought extension of his medical...

Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Recognised for Excellence in Financial Inclusion

Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers, a leading pension fund administrator...

Arthur Andersen: Fall From Grace-A Sad Tale of Greed!

At "Andersen U.," the lush, 150-acre campus where Arthur Andersen LLP has trained tens of thousands of new recruits, there's a shrinento ethical accounting. A display in the Andersen Heritage Center is devoted to yellowing press clippings of a long-ago campaign to clean up the accounting industry by Leonard Spacek, who led the firm from 1947 to 1963. In one, he accused Bethlehem Steel of overstating its profits in 1964 by more than 60%. In another, he bashed the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to crack down on companies that cooked their books, saying that at best the regulatory agency has been "a brake on the rate of retrogression in the quality of accounting."
spot_img

Related Articles

Popular Categories

spot_imgspot_img