Court orders Rivers revenue board to pay N88m to NSITF over unpaid employer contributions

The National Industrial Court has ordered the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue to pay N88,058,696 to the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) following a decade of unpaid employer contributions.

Justice Muhammad Hamza, the presiding judge of the Port Harcourt Judicial Division, issued the directive on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. The sum serves as a final settlement for liabilities incurred under the Employees’ Compensation Scheme between January 2015 and December 2024.

The court has mandated that the payment be completed within 30 days.

Background to the dispute
The NSITF brought the matter to court, asserting that the Rivers Revenue Board, as a statutory employer, is legally required to remit one percent of its total monthly payroll into the Employees’ Compensation Fund.

According to the claimant, the Board failed to provide payroll records or make the necessary payments despite receiving multiple demand letters and statutory notices. Consequently, the NSITF exercised its legal authority to estimate the Board’s payroll and assess the outstanding debt and penalties.

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Terms of settlement
The judgment followed a mutual agreement between both parties to settle the matter out of court. Under the approved terms:

Statutory contributions: N74,833,648 for the period of 2015–2024.

Default penalty: N11,225,047 for failure to remit on time.

Recovery costs: N2,000,000.

Total settlement: N88,058,696

Justice Hamza noted that the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue accepted these figures as a true reflection of its statutory obligations under the Employees’ Compensation Act 2010.

As part of the agreement, the NSITF has pledged not to conduct further audits regarding the Board’s workplace remittances for the specific ten-year period covered by this settlement.

Ngozi Ekugo

Ngozi Ekugo is a Senior Correspondent at BusinessDay. She holds a Masters in management from the University of Lagos, an undergraduate from University of Lagos, and is in an alumni of Queen's College. Shes currently an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM). She has a brief experience at Goldman sachs, London in its Human Capital Management division. She is interested in human capital development and is leveraging her varied experience across sectors to report labour and global mobility trends for stakeholders to make informed decisions.