Employers blamed for poor pension remittance

The inability of enrollees in the contributory pension scheme to get returns on their account has been attributed to the late remittances of pension funds by employers.  Managing Director of Trustfund Pensions, Mrs. Helen Da-Souza, stated this during the 2015 employers’ forum on pension regulatory compliance held in Abuja. She explained that the purpose of […]

The inability of enrollees in the contributory pension scheme to get returns on their account has been attributed to the late remittances of pension funds by employers.
 Managing Director of Trustfund Pensions, Mrs. Helen Da-Souza, stated this during the 2015 employers’ forum on pension regulatory compliance held in Abuja.
She explained that the purpose of the interactive session was to discuss and find solutions to the issues responsible for the delay in processing contributions received.
She said Trustfund pension goal is to update its members’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) with all contributions remitted for them within 48 hours of receipt of the remittances.
According to her, in order to achieve this goal, the Trustfund is poise to ensure prompt crediting of all RSAs; timely printing and delivery of statement of accounts; resolution of all customers’ complaints within 48 hours and strict compliance with provisions of Pencom Reform Act 2004 and other guidelines, directives and circulars issued by Pencom.
Also speaking, the Chief Compliance Officer of Trustfund, Mrs. Rachael Obi, said the inability of employers to credit the RSA holders’ account of employees was as a result  of errors that come from the schedule of remittance remains a challenge.
Her words: “This has carried on over the years and as a result, moneys were not invested properly. And because moneys are not invested, account holders are not getting any return on their account because of the inability to invest. We have officials from companies that transfer money to PFAs without adequate information about who owns the money and what grade level of such a person. When those transfers take place, our Custodian, Zenith Custodian, notifies us of the payment but Trustfund is unable to credit because of inadequacy of schedules. This is why we think the desk officers who make these payments must be educated to know the information required when making transfers.”
On his part, Trustfund zonal Manager, North Central, Maurice Ogar, urged workers to embrace voluntary contribution that can be assessed any time contributors’ desire.
 “Voluntary contribution is for everybody that has Retirement Saving Account (RSA) with a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) under the contributory pension scheme. It is meant to increase pension contribution on an individual basis. The mandatory contribution is based on 18% with 8% from the employee while 10% comes from the employer. In addition to this, an individual on his or her own can have another contribution, which is kept separately from the RSA. Voluntary contribution is kept separately because the contributor can assess it any time while the RSA cannot be assessed until a worker is 50 years old or he or she has retired from work.”
He explained that if voluntary contribution is kept for five years without withdrawal, such withdrawal is done free of charge without tax but if withdrawal is made before five years maturity period, there will be a tax on the amount of income that has accrued on the contribution.
Oga explained that workers could fund the voluntary contribution by standing order on payment of additional amount every month from salary or direct payment of a fixed amount monthly or quarterly through payment to Pension custodian with notification to PFA of the payment for record of all payments.