Final pay for a temp in Nigeria or Kenya
How a Nigerian or Kenyan agency settles a departing temp's last pay on a regular run, checks the leave owed and sees it flow into the statutory schedules.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Recruitment businesses in Nigeria, Kenya
An assignment ends on a Friday. The client's warehouse no longer needs the extra pickers, or the call-centre campaign has closed, and your agency now owes each temp a last payment: the hours from the final week, any allowance still due, money for leave they earned but never took, perhaps a reimbursement, less whatever they still owe you. In Lagos or Nairobi, that last payslip is also the one most likely to be disputed, because the worker has nothing more to wait for.
Achekam has no separate final-settlement pay run. That is not a reason to pay leavers outside payroll. It means the settlement is built into the regular run the temp already belongs to, and the care goes into the inputs before anyone approves it.
Final settlement as variable inputs on a regular run
Pay runs in Achekam can be weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Each period's overtime, commission, allowances, reimbursements and unpaid leave go in as variable inputs on the run. Bonus, correction and final-settlement payments follow the same route: there is no special run type for them, so they are entered as variable inputs on the leaver's normal run.
For a weekly temp, that means the last weekly run carries everything. In practice:
- Confirm the final day worked and the hours on the last signed timesheet.
- Enter that week's overtime and allowances in the usual way.
- Add any reimbursement the temp is still owed, with the receipt on file.
- Add the leave pay you have agreed is owing (see the next section), and agree with your accountant which input carries it so the payslip reads clearly.
- Have a second person approve the run.
That last step is not optional. A run is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it, and once approved it is never recalculated. If a figure is wrong after approval, it is put right on a later run, which is awkward when the worker has already left. Check before approval, not after.
Leave balance to settle
Payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave, with leave building up month by month. That gives you a running balance for each temp to start from.
For Nigerian and Kenyan employers there is a catch to know about. Leave days are counted against South African public holidays, and the built-in entitlements follow South African law, even when the employer is set up under Nigerian or Kenyan rules. The balance on screen is therefore a starting point, not an answer.
Before you settle, work the figure out yourself:
- Take the entitlement from the temp's contract and the law of your country, not the default.
- Count the leave actually taken during the assignment, adjusting for local public holidays that fell inside it.
- Agree the number of days owing, then the amount, and keep the working with the payroll records.
Kenyan employers will find the rules on leave, pay statements and termination in the Employment Act, 2007 on Kenya Law, which also lists the records an employer must keep. Nigerian agencies should check the temp's contract and their adviser's reading of the Labour Act before fixing the number.
What flows into the Nigerian schedules and returns
Once the run is approved, the settlement is simply part of that month's payroll. For a Nigerian employer, approved runs feed the monthly schedules for PAYE per State, pension per pension fund administrator, the National Housing Fund and NSITF, and the annual employer and ITF returns.
Three checks for a leaver's month:
- PAYE State. Achekam assigns each Nigerian employee's PAYE to the State tax authority of their State of residence. Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act that is the State where the employee lived on 1 January of the tax year, or on the day the employment started, so check the State on the temp's record against that rule rather than against a recent change of address.
- Pension. The final payment appears in the pension schedule for the temp's administrator, so the last contribution follows the leaver.
- Annual returns. The leaver's months stay in the year's figures; nothing needs to be added back later.
What flows into the Kenyan schedules and the P9A
For a Kenyan employer, approved runs feed the P10, SHIF, NSSF and NITA schedules, with a P9A per employee for the year. A temp who leaves in the middle of the year still gets a P9A covering the months they were paid, and the final settlement sits inside those figures.
Two limits apply to both countries. The Nigerian and Kenyan schedules download as Achekam's own CSV layout and a PDF, not in each authority's upload template, so someone re-keys or reshapes them for the portal. And Achekam files nothing and pays nothing to any tax authority or fund: it prepares the documents and records what a person filed and paid. The deadline remains yours.
More on where Nigerian and Kenyan payroll stops short today is in the payroll gaps for Nigeria and Kenya.
Agreeing the figures with the temp in writing
Final pay disputes are rarely about arithmetic. They are about what the worker expected. Settle that before the run is approved:
| Line | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|
| Hours in the final period | The last signed timesheet |
| Allowances and overtime | Timesheet and assignment terms |
| Leave owing | Your own working, not the default balance |
| Reimbursements | Receipts on file |
| Amounts the temp owes | Signed advance or loan agreement |
Send the temp that breakdown, ask them to confirm it in writing, and only then let the run go for approval. Keep the confirmation with the payslip. If something surfaces later, it is dealt with on a following run, as described in correcting an approved pay run.
For the leave side of the calculation, how leave builds up for temps explains what Achekam tracks during the assignment.
Before your next assignment ends, write a one-page leaver checklist for your payroll team using the table above, and agree with your accountant how leave pay will be entered. The first settlement you run that way sets the pattern for every one after it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
