Unverifiable addresses hinders registration of workers in the informal sector

The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) on Wednesday said it had not been able to register workers in the informal sectors due to unverifiable contact addresses.

Mr Buala Saliu, Assistant General Manager, Compliance and Enforcement, PENCOM, made this known at an interactive meeting organised in collaboration with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) in Lagos.

The event, on the implementation of the pension Reform Act 2014, was attended by workers from the organised private sector.

According to Saliu, millions of workers in the informal sector are required to key into the new pension scheme, but the commission cannot reach them because of incorrect contact addresses.

He said the letters written to some addresses by workers in the informal sector were returned to PENCOM because the addresses did not exist.

He said some of the workers were also reluctant to join the scheme because of low salary purchasing power.

“Many people are not too eager to have their income deducted because it is small.”

“There is also a negative perception about the scheme, these are factors that are affecting more workers from keying in,” he said.

Saliu said the attitude of some employers have contributed to the low level of compliance of the pension act, thereby affecting their ability to render normal services.

He noted there must be an enhanced enforcement drive through pension audit of employers.

The acting general manager further said the commission was building a database of all eligible employers in the country and that emerging companies or employers would be captured in future.

He, however, said the commission has recorded N7 billion as outstanding pension– money received as penalty from defaulters.

Mr Femi Mokikan, Principal Partner, Femi Mokikan and Co, who spoke from employers’ perspective, commended the new act, saying that it has corrected some laws that were not favourable to beneficiaries.

Mokikan said in the new act, when an employee dies under the group life, the insurance will pay his named beneficiary, rather than to his Retired Saving Account in the Pension Fund Administration.

He said the arrangement was better than what was obtained in the 2014 act.

NAN