Employers who delay remitting workers’ pension contributions will not obtain Pension Clearance Certificates until they pay the penalties owed, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said.

The commission’s director-general, Omolola Oloworaran, said a new automated system calculates penalties for late remittances and makes their settlement a condition for issuing the certificates.

She disclosed this on Tuesday at the 2026 Annual PenCom Media Conference in Abuja.

The measure could affect defaulting employers seeking federal government contracts or business opportunities within the pension industry, where evidence of pension compliance is required.

Ms Oloworaran said the commission is strengthening enforcement against employers that failed to remit contributions or paid them late.

“But we are monitoring, and we are going after employers who are not contributing and also those who are not contributing in time as well,” she said.

Under the Contributory Pension Scheme, employers deduct workers’ contributions and remit them alongside their own contributions into workers’ retirement savings accounts.

PenCom’s compliance guidance requires remittance within seven working days of salary payment. Delaying this deprives workers’ accounts of money that should be invested towards their retirement. 

According to PenCom’s published guidance, recovered contributions and penalties are paid into affected workers’ retirement savings accounts. 

The penalties are intended to compensate workers whose contributions are delayed for investment income lost through delayed remittances. 

Ms Oloworaran said the commission was also using business relationships within the pension industry to encourage compliance.

She explained that pension operators were required to deal with service providers and other counterparties that complied with pension obligations. 

Pension fund administrators were also prohibited from investing in companies that failed to meet the applicable pension requirements, she said.

According to a May 2025 PenCom circular, vendors and service providers must engage licensed pension fund operators to present valid Pension Clearance Certificates before entering service or technical agreements. 

The DG said recovery agents were examining employers’ records to establish outstanding liabilities and recover unpaid contributions.

She said employer remittance delays remained a challenge despite improvements in retirement benefit processing.

Responding to a journalist’s complaint about pension deductions that had not reached a worker’s account, Ms Oloworaran said PenCom had introduced quarterly engagements with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to address such cases.

She said affected workers should not be left to pursue IPPIS themselves and requested case details for investigation.

“I don’t think it’s right for a retiree to be the one going to IPPIS. I think that is not acceptable,” she said.

On retirement benefits, Ms Oloworaran said PenCom had removed an administrative bottleneck by transferring routine approval responsibilities to pension fund administrators.

Previously, requests had to come to the commission for approval before administrators could act. She said the change allowed PenCom to concentrate on oversight and intervene when operators failed to meet the applicable 48-hour approval standard.

She also said complaints should receive responses within 24 hours, or within 48 hours where additional time was needed.

On state governments, the DG said two additional states had begun making pension contributions this year, although they had not met all the requirements for full implementation of the scheme.

She said the commission would continue engaging states to improve compliance and retirement benefits for their workers.