From Left: The Director General of the National Pension Commission, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran and the President, Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr. Kabiru Yusuf during a recent visit to the President of NPAN.
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has raised the alarm over growing non-compliance by media organizations with pension regulations, stating that journalists are currently owed more than N720 million in pension contributions by their employers.
PenCom’s Director General, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, made this disclosure on Monday during a courtesy visit to the President of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr. Kabiru Yusuf, in Abuja.
While commending Daily Trust as a “leading example” for honoring its pension obligations since 2015, Ms. Oloworaran described the overall state of compliance in the media industry as “very troubling.”
“The Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 is clear — all employers must remit pension contributions within seven days of salary payments. Our investigations show many media houses are falling short, with total arrears exceeding N720 million,” Ms. Oloworaran said.
The PenCom DG stressed that the commission prefers a collaborative approach instead of penalties, adding: “We want to work together with media houses to enable them to clear their backlogs and become compliant.”
To aid compliance, PenCom recently held conversations with the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) to foster awareness across the industry.
In response, NPAN President Kabiru Yusuf explained the financial struggles many media organizations face, noting that many are battling just to pay their journalists’ salaries. This financial pressure, he said, makes it difficult for them to keep up with additional obligations.
He, however, recognized PenCom’s constructive approach and advocated for a broader industry dialogue under the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) — a coalition that includes NPAN, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) — to collectively address the compliance bottleneck.
Ms. Oloworaran supported the proposal and encouraged stakeholders to collaborate toward a sustainable solution. “We are not looking to be punitive; we want to enable media houses to make the contributions that will guarantee financial security for their workers in retirement,” the DG said.
The meeting marked a significant step toward strengthening pension compliance and securing the future of media workers across the country.
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