NSSF widens pension coverage with new saving plan

NSSF widens pension coverage with new saving plan

 Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE |  The National Social Security Fund has unveiled a voluntary membership plan that will provide employers and workers that are not compelled by the mandatory provisions of the NSSF Act the opportunity to voluntarily save for their retirement Interested persons or entities can save through a mobile money platform using a code *254#.

NSSF Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba, told journalists at the Workers House in Kampala on June 12 that there is a potential customer base of close to 2million workers who do not have any form of social security cover out of about 4million Ugandans working in the formal sector.

“The Fund is responding to a need for a voluntary savings option by many Ugandans as well as enhancing the Fund’s growth strategy in terms of membership and contributions,” Byarugaba said.

This product comes at a time when legislators are still pondering a new legal regime to break the monopoly of NSSF that collects between Shs 50-60bn a month in savings.  The NSSF Act gives powers to the Fund to do this business under sections 10 (1) and 10 (3).

The Fund plans to will recruit and register two types of voluntary members – voluntary employers – under NSSF (voluntary registration and contributions) regulations, and individual voluntary contributors with specific respectively.

They would recruit and register employers with less than five employees as well as accept contributions from former NSSF members, whom were paid their respective benefits but are still able and willing to save with the Fund.

So far, over Shs 2.6 billion had been collected as at the end of May during the pilot project, which started last year, and recruited 3,017 voluntary employers.