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PenCom & NPAN Team Up to Enhance Media Pension Compliance
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says it will forge a strategic partnership with the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) to ensure compliance of pension remittance by managers of media organisations in Nigeria.
Director General of the National Pension Commission, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, made the disclosure in Abuja when she led her management team on a courtesy visit to the President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Malam Kabiru Yusuf, on Monday.
She said the purpose of the visit was to seek support for the compliance within the media sector to conform to the Pension Reform Act of 2014, which mandates that all employers must remit pension contributions for their employers on a monthly basis within seven days.
Accordingly, the DG highlighted that the mandate of PenCom is to enforce and ensure full compliance with the Act and as part of the drive for compliance, the commission has been having several meetings with employers across the country, while noting that many media houses are not remitting pension for their staff as employers currently owe over N700 million in pension remittance.
“A couple of weeks ago, we met with the Press Council as well to help us in this drive to ensure compliance with the Pension Reform Act.
What we do in PenCom is we try to engage employers and get all employers to be compliant with the Act by ensuring that everyone is contributing towards the financial security of their staff.
So, we are the watchdogs to enforce that. Unfortunately, it’s been a tall task particularly within the media sector.
“The findings are very troubling because based on the investigations we’ve done, the media houses are owing pension contributions to the tune of N720million.
That’s a whole lot. “It seems to me like a number of them don’t even bother to pay at all. And it’s striking because we hold the media in high esteem in society.
And like I said, the media helps to shape national discourse and we hope and assume that at least they will be leading in the case of contributing pensions for their workers,” she added.
She, however, commended Media Trust Group for being the sole media outfit that has been compliant with remitting staff pension into their Retirement Savings Account (RSA).
“I must first of all commend the Media Trust Group because they have essentially been leading by example in this area. You’ve been compliant since 2015.
She reiterated that the purpose of the visit was not focused on being punitive but to seek NPAN’s collaboration towards financial security of workers
In his response, the President of NPAN who also doubles as the Chairman Board of Directors of Media Trust Group, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, noted that newspaper houses are struggling to survive as many cannot pay salaries, let alone remit pension.
“The industry is in deep trouble. Maybe that is partly why this compliance is not happening. I do know for a fact that many newspapers cannot even pay their obligation to their staff,” he noted.T
o address the situation, He said “We have a super group called the Nigerian Press Organisation which is made up of the NPAN, the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
We work together sometimes. So, it is important to arrange a meeting with all these associations and chart a way forward,” he explained.
He proposed that the meeting be slated in August or September to interface with PenCom to find a lasting solution to pension remittance in the media industry.
News
Nigeria to Send Troops for Peacekeeping in the Republic of Benin
In the letter, the appeal follows an urgent request from the Government of the Republic of Benin for exceptional and immediate air support from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate seeking its approval to deploy Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin for the purpose of peacekeeping in the aftermath of a coup.
The request is conveyed in a letter read during the plenary by the Senate President , Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday.
President Tinubu cited Section 5, Subsection 5, Part 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), following consultations with the National Defence Council.
In the letter, the appeal follows an urgent request from the Government of the Republic of Benin for exceptional and immediate air support from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
President Tinubu explains that Benin is currently facing an attempted unconstitutional seizure of power, leading to the disruption and destabilization of its democratic institutions.
He notes that the situation requires swift external intervention.
He emphasizes that, given the close ties of brotherhood between both nations and the principles of collective security under ECOWAS, Nigeria has a duty to provide the necessary support..
News
Burkina Faso grounds Nigerian military aircraft over airspace violations
The military aircraft had two (2) crew members and nine (9) passengers on board, all military personnel.
The Government of Burkina Faso said a Nigerian Air Force aircraft carrying 11 soldiers was forced to land in the country on Monday after reportedly violating its airspace.
The development was reported by the Agence d’Information du Burkina, the state-run news agency, which published a statement from the Confederation of Sahel States.
The statement, translated from French, read, “The Confederation of Sahel States informs the public that a C130 aircraft belonging to the Air Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to land today, December 8, 2025, in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, following an in-flight emergency while operating in Burkinabe airspace.
The military aircraft had two (2) crew members and nine (9) passengers on board, all military personnel.
”The statement added that an investigation by Burkinabe authorities “highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device.”
The AES condemned the incident as a violation of sovereignty, saying it “condemns with the utmost firmness this violation of its airspace and the sovereignty of its member States.”
The body warned that “air and anti-aircraft defences of the Confederate space put on maximum alert…were authorised to neutralise any aircraft that would violate the Confederate space.”
News
Obasanjo shares four pillars to end insurgency in Nigeria
Obasanjo emphasised that the civil war lasted for 30 months. Although we thought it would last for six months. But this fight against insurgents and criminals has lasted for almost 15 years.
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo says that Nigerian government needs a combination of training, equipment, intelligence, and technology to end insurgency.
Obasanjo, during an appearance on the ‘Toyin Falola Interviews’ conversation, which was live-streamed on social media, noted that the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria has lasted longer than the country’s civil war that took place between 1967 and 1970.
Obasanjo emphasised that the civil war lasted for 30 months. Although we thought it would last for six months. But this fight against insurgents and criminals has lasted for almost 15 years.
”There is nothing wrong with Nigerian military personnel receiving training in countries that have solved the insurgency challenge,”he added.
Citing his experience with the Niger Delta militancy, he said that he will not rule out the tendency of security personnel colluding with insurgents.
His words: “There are four important items and I hope that those who are in charge — military, executive, and legislature — know what they are doing.
First, there is training. There are different types of training.
The military is trained for conventional war.“If the people you are dealing with are fleeting targets or living among your people, you will need different types of training to deal with them.
“Among the countries that have done that fairly successfully is Colombia. Should we invite them to train our people? There is no shame in that. It is a specialised type of training.“
There is the equipment. The equipment to fight that type of warfare. It differs from equipment for conventional warfare.
The other one is intelligence. You need absolute intelligence. Can others trust us with the intelligence that they have?“The fourth one is technology. These four have to come together and do other things internally.
“Then you ask the military to be the one buying equipment. It is not done. The whole thing is an industry. It is an industry,” he said.
Nigeria to Send Troops for Peacekeeping in the Republic of Benin
Burkina Faso grounds Nigerian military aircraft over airspace violations
Obasanjo shares four pillars to end insurgency in Nigeria
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