PenCom, the National Pension Commission, is the government body that regulates and supervises all pension matters in Nigeria, including the mandatory contributory pension scheme employers must run under the Pension Reform Act 2014.
PenCom doesn't hold anybody's pension money. It licenses and polices the companies that do: Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), who manage each worker's Retirement Savings Account (RSA), and Pension Fund Custodians, who hold the assets. When something goes wrong, an employer not remitting, a PFA misbehaving, PenCom is the referee.
For employers, the rules PenCom enforces are concrete. If you have 3 or more employees, the contributory pension scheme is mandatory: the employee contributes 8% and the employer at least 10% of monthly emoluments (basic salary + housing + transport allowances). Both amounts must reach each employee's RSA within 7 working days of paying salaries. Pay late and you owe a penalty of at least 2% of the unpaid amount per month, paid into the employee's RSA, not to the government. PenCom can escalate persistent defaulters to account freezing or prosecution.
Nigerian example: a Lagos design studio with 6 staff pays salaries on the 28th. By roughly the 6th of the next month, each staff member's 8% deduction plus the studio's 10% must be sitting in their individual RSAs at their chosen PFAs.
Employees choose their own PFA, employers can't impose one. See how pension fits with PAYE and the rest in statutory deductions in Nigeria, or preview any salary on the free calculator.