PenCom crackdown: How withholding workers’ money could cost employers billions

From Adanna Nnamani , Abuja
“A labourer is worthy of his wage,” the saying goes. Yet, for many Nigerian workers, the struggle extends beyond earning a salary to ensuring that pension contributions deducted from their pay actually reach their retirement savings accounts.
For employers who treat pension deductions as a convenient source of short-term cash, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) is sending a clear warning, which is that the money withheld from workers’ salaries could eventually cost businesses far more than the amount they refused to remit.
With an automated system now calculating penalties for delayed pension contributions and linking the settlement of outstanding...