NSSF posts better performance amid ongoing saga

Addressing journalists, the fund’s acting managing director, Patrick Ayota, said the fund has collected Sh786b in the last six months

He added that the fund’s income also grew in the first and second half of 2022 by 22% and 17% respectively.

Ayota says in the same period, the fund collected sh643b while its assets also increased from sh17.6 trillion to sh17.8 trillion.

“Just for the month of January, we collected sh121b. Amidst the noise, people actually send in their money. If you compare that to the same time in January last year between 1st and 24th, we collected sh97b,” Ayota said.

Recent allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the Fund whose portfolio stands at sh17.9 trillion have drawn anxiety among members of the public.

Other concerns revolving around the renewal of the contract for Byarugaba who had reached the retirement age of 60 years but also had served two terms as chairperson of NSSF include his refusal to remit sh6b as requested by one of the Fund’s supervisor, gender minister Betty Amongi.

The chairperson of the parliamentary committee on finance, Keefa Kiwanuka, sought to understand how safe funds were and to their satisfaction NSSF presented a statement indicating that investments were in fixed assets which can be traded.

The acting NSSF managing director, Patrick Ayota, told the committee that there is need to penetrate the informal sector to widen social security coverage. He said the Fund was performing extremely well and making profit.

Butambala County Member of Parliament Muwanga Kivumbi tabled a letter on alleged corruption but the chairperson requested for time before considering it further. The membership of NSSF currently stands at 1.3 million savers with an employer base of 27,628.