Kampala, Uganda, 20th June 2016 -The amount of money paid in benefits by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has increased by 60%, from Shs186 billion paid last financial year to Shs230 billion as end of May 2016, NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba has said.
The number of beneficiaries paid has also increased from 14, 482 to 15,203 people as at end of May 2016.
“This increase in benefits paid is due to a systematic and continuous improvement of our processes, driven by our focus on automation. Benefits payment is core to our mandate as a social security institution, and this an area where we have recorded one of our significant success stories. The amount of money we pay out to qualifying members has consistently increased year-on-year over the last six years,” Byarugaba said.
“Over the last 30 years, the Fund has paid over Ushs 1.1 trillion to over 250,000 members. Of the total paid, about Ushs 900 billion (80%) has been paid over the last 6 years, further underlying the progress the Fund has made over the last 6 years”, he added.
He added that the Fund has also improved its turnaround time, the time it takes to pay benefits from a high of 120 days five years ago to an average of 9 days this year, with a target to pay within five days, and even less for the age benefit by 2017.
“Some people think that those who save with NSSF actually never get to withdraw their money because they die before they get it. Our figures demystify the myth. The current benefits data also shows that 97 per cent of benefits are paid to living members and not their next of kin,” he said, adding that last year, the Fund paid out Shs186 billion to over 14,750 members.
He added that one of the reason the Fund launched a benefits campaign, dubbed “Friends with Benefits” is inspire a savings culture among Ugandans as well as start national dialogue on the value of mobilisation of domestic savings.
“Friends with Benefits” is also aimed at showcasing inspiration success stories from beneficiaries who have received and used their benefits to change their lives, those of their families and even the communities they live in so as to motivate existing and potential members to invest their retirement savings. I would like to urge the public to save for their retirement with the Fund and that explains why we recently launched the Friends with Benefits campaign,” he added.
NSSF, which now has total assets worth Shs6.2 trillion, has a total membership of about 1.7 million contributors, of which more than 780,000 actively contribute every month.
Amount paid per benefit category during 2015/2016
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