The last day of a job is a bad day to start asking questions, and in Sierra Leone one question in particular arrives far too late: was the money actually sent? Fifteen per cent of your pay was accounted for every month between you and your employer. Whether it reached the National Social Security and Insurance Trust is a separate matter, and it is the one that decides what you walk away with.
Contributions to NASSIT total 15 per cent of pay, made up of 5 per cent deducted from the employee and 10 per cent added by the employer, and the whole amount must be remitted within fifteen days of the end of the month. The employee share is deducted before income tax is calculated, which is why it shows on a payslip as a line above the tax rather than below it. Everything else in this article follows from those two sentences.
A gap between contracts is also the moment a second, independent income stops being a nice idea. I am Beezy is one of the apps built on that idea — a balance that grows from watching and reading on a phone, and that owes nothing to whether anybody files anything on your behalf.
What does the fifteen per cent actually buy?
It buys a claim, and the claim has conditions expressed in months of contribution rather than in years of service with any one employer. That distinction is the good news, because it means changing jobs does not reset anything, provided the contributions were made.
The full pension, and how it is calculated
NASSIT sets a minimum of 180 months of contributions — fifteen years — for a full pension. That entitlement is 30 per cent of the average of your best sixty months of earnings, increased by 2 per cent for each additional year of contribution and capped at 80 per cent. On retirement a gratuity equal to twelve months of the initial pension is paid as a lump sum, and pensions are paid no later than the 25th of each month.
Read the calculation base carefully: it is the average of your best sixty months, not your last sixty. A good period early in a career is not wasted by a lean period later, which is another reason the record itself matters more than any single job.
What happens if you never reach 180 months
There is a fallback, and most people do not know it exists. Below 180 months of contributions and from the age of 55, NASSIT pays an Old Age Grant of 1.5 times your average monthly earnings for each twelve months contributed. It is a lump sum rather than an income, and it is exactly why a short spell of formal employment early in life is still worth registering properly.
The claims a contract can leave behind
Retirement is only one of the events the scheme covers, and two of the others are the ones that most often catch a family unprepared. Knowing the qualifying conditions in advance is worth more than knowing the amounts, because the conditions are what you can still act on.
Invalidity and survivors
The invalidity benefit requires a minimum of 60 months of contributions, of which at least 12 must fall within the 36 months preceding the invalidity. That second condition is the sharp one: a long-lapsed record does not qualify, however many months it contains in total. Survivors' benefits are split 40 per cent to the spouse and 60 per cent among the nominated children, payable until the age of 18, or 23 if they are still in education.
The word doing the work there is "nominated". If the nomination on file is out of date, the money follows the paperwork rather than the family. Updating it costs one visit and is the single most neglected piece of admin in the whole system.
If you go self-employed next
The scheme does not stop at the office door. A self-employed person or a voluntary contributor pays the full 15 per cent on declared income — both halves, since there is no employer to add the second. Contributions are also due for contract staff, part-timers and casual workers, which means a job described as informal by an employer is not automatically outside the scheme.
| Claim | Contribution condition | Form it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Full pension | 180 months minimum | 30% of the best-60-month average, +2% per extra year, capped at 80% |
| Gratuity on retirement | With the pension | Lump sum equal to 12 months of the initial pension |
| Old Age Grant | Under 180 months, from age 55 | 1.5 times average monthly earnings per 12 months contributed |
| Invalidity | 60 months, of which 12 in the preceding 36 | Benefit paid by NASSIT |
| Survivors | On the deceased member's record | 40% spouse, 60% nominated children to 18, or 23 in education |
How do you check the money was ever sent?
A deduction on a payslip is evidence that your employer withheld the money. It is not evidence that the money arrived. Those are two different events and only the second creates the claim, so the check is worth making while you still have a relationship with the employer rather than after it ends.
Ask for the record, not the payslip
Go to NASSIT and ask for a statement of the contributions posted to your own record, then compare it month by month with your payslips. Discrepancies are far easier to resolve while the employer still exists and the person who ran the payroll is still contactable. Do this before you resign, not after.
The deadlines that apply to your employer
Two calendars govern this and both are short. NASSIT contributions must be remitted within fifteen days of the end of the month. Pay-as-you-earn tax must be declared and paid to the National Revenue Authority no later than the 15th of the month following the payment of salaries, and the annual return is due within 120 days of the end of the financial year — 30 April for a calendar year.
Late remittance is not free. NASSIT charges interest at the 90-day treasury bill rate increased by 20 per cent of that rate, compounded monthly, with a further 10 per cent of that rate applied if a demand goes unanswered for 30 days. On the tax side, the National Revenue Authority applies late payment penalties of 10 per cent within 30 days, 15 per cent between 30 and 90 days, and 25 per cent beyond 90 days.
| Obligation | Deadline | Consequence of missing it |
|---|---|---|
| NASSIT contributions | Within 15 days of month end | Interest at the 90-day treasury bill rate plus 20% of that rate, compounded monthly |
| PAYE declaration and payment | By the 15th of the following month | 10% within 30 days, 15% from 30 to 90 days, 25% beyond |
| Annual income tax return | Within 120 days of year end, 30 April for a calendar year | Late filing penalties set in the Finance Act 2025 |
| Pension payment by NASSIT | No later than the 25th of each month | Query it directly with NASSIT |
Bridging the gap between contracts with I am Beezy
Between two jobs, contributions stop and expenses do not. What a person needs in that window is something that pays on its own rhythm and does not require anyone else to process a payroll.
What the platform does
The arrangement inside I am Beezy takes one line to explain: content gets viewed, every view is credited, and the credit is settled onto a payment method the user already has. The reference figure the platform publishes is 5 to 15 euros a day, which lands at roughly NLe 132 to NLe 395 once converted at the 26.3086 reference rate the Bank of Sierra Leone gave on 5 August 2026. Currencies move; take the rate on the day.
Where it lands
Payouts here run on mobile money, the channel the central bank supervises, with services identified by name including Orange Money and Afrimoney. PayPal is absent from every Bank of Sierra Leone list covering this ground, so leave it out of the plan entirely and set up a wallet in your own name instead.
It is not a substitute for the record
Say this plainly to yourself: earnings of this kind are not contributions, and they build no entitlement with NASSIT. If you are heading into self-employment, the voluntary contributor route is what keeps the 180-month clock running, and it costs the full 15 per cent rather than 5.
Questions that come up at the end of a contract
Where do I find the law on notice and severance?
The Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security publishes the Employment Act 2023 in its resources section, alongside the Work Permit Act 2023 and the Overseas Employment and Migrant Workers Act 2023. That is the text to read for notice, termination and end-of-contract entitlements, and the Directorate of Labour and Employment is the office to take a dispute to. Do not take a figure for severance from a forum; take the question to the Directorate.
Does a short contract count for anything?
Yes. Entitlements are counted in months of contribution, and contributions are due for contract, part-time and casual workers as well as permanent staff. Four months on a project contract is four months on your record, provided it was remitted.
What if my employer deducted but never remitted?
Raise it with NASSIT with your payslips in hand. The scheme charges interest on late remittance and has a demand procedure, which is precisely why the statement of your own record is the document to ask for first. The longer the gap, the harder the reconstruction.
The one thing to do before you hand in a resignation
Request your contribution statement from NASSIT and reconcile it against twelve months of payslips. If the two match, your record is intact and portable to whatever comes next. If they do not, you are in a far stronger position to fix it while you are still employed than you will ever be afterwards. Update your nomination while you are there, check whether you are heading for the 180-month pension or the Old Age Grant route, and read the Employment Act 2023 on the ministry's own site rather than second-hand. And to keep something arriving while the next contract takes shape, I am Beezy is free to join and settles onto the wallet you already carry.
