By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

The Federal Government is yet to commence the implementation of the revised 18 per cent minimum pension contributions for its employees as stipulated under Section 4 of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014. Recall that the PRA 2014 stipulates thus, “The contribution for any employee to which this Act applies shall be made in the following rates relating to his monthly emoluments: a minimum of ten per cent by the employer; and a minimum of eight per cent by the employee.”

The figure was revised upward from the PRA 2004 where both the employer and employee contribute seven per cent each to add up to 15 per cent monthly. However since the PRA 2014 became law, the federal government is yet to comply and is still contributing 15 per cent monthly.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom), in its website, stated that 73,403 companies have so far embraced the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), and that 43,918 of them have largely complied with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act (PRA).

PenCom noted that about seven million employees working with public/private sector employers have registered with Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) for the management of their pension contributions.

“The number of companies whose employees have so far registered is 73,403. Of this number, 43,918 employers with more than three employees have largely complied with the provisions of the PRA.

“The remaining 29,485 with less than three employees are mostly the non-compliant organisations. These categories of employers are usually more of portfolio companies and in some cases are companies that had either been liquidated or ceased to exist,” it said.

It maintained the sum of N79.16 billion has been computed as the arrears of 15 per cent pension increase owed to 79,961 Federal Government retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as at December, 2014.