Filing NSSF returns and paying contributions

How a Kenyan employer files the monthly NSSF return online, pays by *222# or M-PESA before the 9th, avoids late penalties and records each step.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya

The NSSF cycle is short and unforgiving. Payroll closes at the end of the month, and a little over a week later the return must be in and the money paid. Miss the date by a day and a penalty attaches; miss it for a few months and the penalties stack.

None of the steps is hard. What goes wrong is timing and ownership: the schedule waits for someone to check it, the person with the portal login is away, or the payment is made but never recorded. This article sets out the monthly routine from schedule to receipt.

Electronic returns only

NSSF's guidance for employers is clear that returns are submitted electronically. Returns on portable media, such as flash disks or CDs, are not accepted. The return is filed on NSSF's e-Service portal.

That makes the portal login a business asset. Decide who holds it, who stands in when that person is away, and where the credentials are kept, before the first deadline rather than on the morning of the 9th.

Paying through *222# and M-PESA

NSSF says that after filing on the e-Service portal, employers can pay contributions through *222# and M-PESA. The return comes first, then the payment against it.

Pay from the business's own account, never from an employee's personal phone, and keep the confirmation message with the month's papers. If several people may pay on the business's behalf, agree who pays which month so that the same contributions are not paid twice by two well-meaning people.

The ninth-day deadline

NSSF says employers must pay contributions for each month on or before the 9th day of the following month, and that payments made after the 9th attract penalties. The NSSF Act, as consolidated on Kenya Law, likewise has contributions paid on the ninth day of each month.

In words: contributions on October's pay are due by 9 November. Because the payroll for October may not be approved until the last working day of October, the real working window is the first week of November. Plan for it:

• approve payroll on time, so that the NSSF schedule exists early;
• review and finalise the schedule in the first working days of the month;
• file and pay with a margin before the 9th, not on it.

Months with movement need extra care. When someone joins or leaves partway through the month, or a back-dated pay change goes through, check that the NSSF schedule reflects it before filing. A leaver missing from the schedule, or a joiner whose membership is not yet registered, is the kind of detail that holds up a return when there is least time to deal with it.

Penalties for late payment

Section 27 of the NSSF Act adds a penalty of five per cent of an unpaid contribution for each month or part of a month that it remains unpaid after the due date.

"Part of a month" is the phrase that bites. Paying on the 10th instead of the 9th puts the contribution a part-month late, which on the Act's wording carries the same five per cent as paying three weeks late. And the penalty repeats for every further month, or part of one, that passes. Late payment of payroll deductions to other authorities has its own consequences, compared in late payment penalties on Kenyan payroll.

The NSSF schedule from Achekam and its CSV layout

Achekam prepares the Kenyan P10, SHIF, NSSF and NITA schedules from approved pay runs, so the NSSF figures come straight from the payroll that was approved, not from a separate spreadsheet.

One limitation to plan around: Nigerian and Kenyan payroll schedules download only in Achekam's own CSV layout and as a PDF, not in each authority's upload template. The figures are there; the format is Achekam's. Work out once how the CSV columns correspond to what the NSSF portal expects, keep that mapping as a short written note, and check it whenever NSSF changes its format. Payroll gaps in Nigeria and Kenya lists this and other limits side by side.

Recording the filing and the payment

Achekam does not file or pay Nigerian or Kenyan payroll returns. A person records the filing made on the authority's portal, with the reference the portal gave, and a second person confirms each payment. The schedule itself is finalised by someone other than the person who prepared it.

That gives a natural division of work:

Each month then leaves a complete trail: the approved run, the finalised schedule, the portal reference and the confirmed payment. If NSSF later queries a month, the answer is in one place.

Two checks are worth adding at month end. First, compare the schedule total with the NSSF liability in the books after posting. Second, confirm the payment amount equals the schedule total. A difference in either points to a late change in payroll or a payment keyed wrongly, both easier to fix now than after a penalty notice. Registration itself is covered in registering with NSSF as an employer.

NSSF's page for employers sets out the employer's duty to pay contributions by the 9th of the following month and the ways to pay, including *222#. Check it for any change to the filing or payment process.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.