Speaking to journalists at the Fund’s headquarters in Kampala, the Managing Director Richard Byarugaba confirmed that the service is available for both voluntary contributors and established entities
He said that the service will be mostly for those that remit less than Shs 4million in social security contributions per month
“MTN Mobile Money benefits both our members and the Fund. In a survey we conducted last year on voluntary contributions, 67 per cent of respondents cited mobile money as a preferred transaction method when remitting their social security contributions,” he said
“in addition to guaranteeing convenience for our voluntary contributors, it will ease reconciliation with an option of automating the upload of contributions onto members’ accounts. It will greatly improve data accuracy, as well as instant confirmation of received contributions through SMS to the contributors,” he added
MTN CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte, welcomed the partnership, noting that it will foster financial inclusion through easing the payments process of pensions that are critical to avoiding poverty in old age.
“In the last eight years, MTN Mobile Money has had significant impact in the transformation of people’s lives. Now we are further enabling people to pay for their NSSF Contributions using MTN Mobile Money. This will enable a significant part of our customers pay their pension and ensure they don’t retire into poverty,” Mr Wim said.
About 9 million Ugandans use MTN Mobile Money as a means to transact, while a big number of Ugandans do not have any form of social security in old age. In that light, rnNSSF recently launched the Voluntary Contributions Plan to provide an opportunity to workers not covered by the mandatory provisions of the NSSF Act, as well as those in gainful self-employment that were previously contributing to the Fund to voluntarily save.
