The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
NSSF aims to create more jobs and make saving a way of life
✳ Year – Interest
2012 ✅10.00%
2013 ✅11.23%
2014 ✅11.50%
2015 ✅13.00%
2016 ✅12.30%
2017 ✅11.23%
2018 ✅ 15%
2019 ✅ 11%
2020 ✅ 10.75%
2021 ✅ 12.15%
2022 ✅ 09.65%
2023 ✅ 10.00%
2024 ✅ 11.5%
Kampala, Uganda | LOUIS JADWONG | The figures released at the 12th National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Annual Members Meeting in Kampala on Thursday were staggering. Up to a million graduates entering the job market in Uganda annually; lowest inflation rate in East Africa; a record UGX 2 trillion to be paid to members’ accounts; 11.5% interest rate for NSSF members; a sh20 trillion target hit 18 months in advance; 89% staff satisfaction.
While only one figure, 11.5% interest rate was of interest to the members of NSSF, the others figures must have caught the eye of potential investors, and those in charge of the economy.
Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Matia Kasaija did not miss the bigger and wider story outside the 11.5% interest rate that had just been presented. “Patrick Ayota. I didn’t know you are such a powerful sales man!! Well done, I may recommend you somewhere to sell certain things for Uganda,” Kasaija said before making his speech.
He added, “if we do not have a program to create jobs for the youth in urban and rural areas to support their livelihoods, we may be building on sand. It’s gratifying to know that the fund is engaging in the real economy like agriculture. This is guaranteeing its future.”
Managing Director Patrick Ayota, a former primary school teacher, had just made the case for a better Uganda, showing that beyond ensuring 11.5% interest for its members, NSSF would keep an eye on the jobs sector while also ensuring Uganda’s gems agriculture, sport, tourism match their potential. He also bragged about NSSF Uganda being an outlier, and the best pension fund in Africa.
“We Ugandans are so pessimistic because we see so much dust around us. Do we need to improve? Yes we do. In this country, there are diamonds waiting to be polished,” Ayota had said.
He went close to poetry in his presentation.
“Uganda is the Pearl of Africa.
No 1 tourist destination.
We are the home of Lake Victoria largest fresh water lake.
Longest river in the world.
Largest bird species.
We work hard, pray earnestly, enjoy our Luwombo.
We run like we are crazy, dance like there is no tomorrow.
Uganda Airlines services are very good.
You can choose to stay anywhere.
Not all Ugandan are corrupt. Not all of us are lazy.
On behalf of the fund, we just put our focus and make our country great.”
“People who are selling land to buy boda bodas will sell boda bodas to buy land. Agriculture income has to be improved. Who will ride the boda? That guy will save with the fund.” ~@nssfug ED Patrick Ayota. #12thNSSFAnnualMembersMeeting
— ArthurKmo Ubuntu – #Cybersecurity#FinanciaLiteracy (@ArthurKmo) September 26, 2024
First he tricked us with a declaration of 10.9%….then he laughed and changed to 11.5%….. pic.twitter.com/xgNkny9u9J
— Lydia Mirembe (@lydmirembe) September 26, 2024
Ayota had earlier told the NSSF members that, “70% of our economy is in agriculture so if we are going to make more people save, we cannot ignore agriculture. We have to make sure that farmers make money for them to have the capacity to save. Once we sort out the production side of agriculture, we have sorted the issue.”
“For the next three to five years, we are going to put our focus on Uganda to make our country greater than what it already is because, in it, we believe our future lies.”
Explaining how NSSF hit a target of sh20 trillion 18 months in advance, he said Uganda’s inflation, even after COVID, has been controlled. The implications of this have been significant.
For every shilling spent on expenses, he said, NSSF generated UGX 18 in value. In comparison, neighbors Kenya generated UGX 8 in Kenya and UGX 5 in Tanzania.
“When you examine the yields across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, we see that interest rates from bonds are quite high,” Patrick Ayota said.
Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development announced that, “As per Section 36(2) of the NSSF Act (Cap 230), for the Financial Year 2023/24, I declare an interest rate of 11.5%. The interest rate I have declared is above the 10-year average rate of inflation currently at 4.2%, and the 2023/24 inflation which stood at 3.9%.”
It is slightly above UGX 2 trillion, the highest amount of money ever paid in interest to members.
The Minister said growth of the Fund to UGX 22.13 trillion, and the increase in contributions, and membership demonstrate stability, progress, and trust in the fund, all prerequisites for a sustainable social security provider, and the social security sector at large, Kasaija said.
Looking at the fund’s Vision 2035, the MD Ayota said NSSF has now anchored all they do to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
“Looking ahead in the next 10 years cycle, we plan to maximize contributions, maximize earnings and maximize value to members,” Ayota said.
“Together with the management team and the board, we have come up with “Vision 2035″, the next 10-year cycle. We are going to be very active in growing jobs and creating earnings for people. We want to make lives better by making savings a way of life.”
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