The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Managing Director Richard Byarugaba has been elected the African region representative to the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Bureau.
The election was confirmed at the 34th ISSA General Assembly during the World Social Security Forum in Marrakech, Morroco.
Byarugaba was nominated by the ISSA president Mohammed Azman bin Aziz Mohammed to the ISSA Council, the election body of the association.
“It is an exciting development to represent Africa at the International Social Security Association. More importantly, it is a recognition of the tremendous contribution NSSF Uganda has made to the social security industry at both the regional and global levels,” Byarugaba said.
“Several innovations pioneered at the Fund, especially in technology, service delivery, and empowerment of our members have been adopted by our peers in the region and beyond. The Fund has also been recognized by ISSA through several awards over the years.”
The ISSA bureau constitutes the administrative authority of the association, composed of the president of the ISSA, the treasurer, the Secretary-General, and elected members representing the different geographical regions of the world.
The bureau is charged with the development of the ISSA strategy and action plans, for the activities and budget of the association, setting programme priorities, monitoring, and evaluating accomplishments, and ruling on membership applications. The body is also in charge of the adoption of financial regulations.
NSSF has previously won the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Good Practice Award in the technology space for its e-collections, a straight-through contributions process, good practice award for its financial literacy, and ‘Friends with Benefits’ communications campaign initiatives.
Others include the ISSA Good Practice Awards for mobile phone-based member self-service, the Annual Members Meeting member engagement initiative, the institutionalization of a performance management system in a social security body, and another for “Enterprise-wide Risk Management” as well as a certificate of merit for the “Strategic Management Framework”.
Byarugaba will serve for a term of three years up to 2025, alongside representatives from Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia and the Pacific.
Byarugaba is credited for having led NSSF to great success including total assets worth shs17.25 trillion whereas the fund also boasts of 1.3 million members.