A team from the Office of the President led by Amb. Abbey Walusimbi the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs has held talks with officials from the National Social Security Fund led by the Deputy Managing Director, Patrick Ayota.
The talks which were aimed at building collaborations between the two offices so as to improve the labour externalization sector and increase savings from the diaspora community were held at the NSSF headquarters in Kampala.
During the talks, Amb. Walusimbi emphasized the need for the NSSF to design a package that can accommodate migrant workers to save many from losing their remittances to heartless relatives and friends.
“This is a sector that greatly contributes to the economy, we need to find means of creating awareness among the key players who are the migrant workers to encourage them appreciate saving for their social protection,” Amb. Walusimbi said.
He noted that there is need to push for compliance among the recruitment companies to ensure that they issue contracts to their employees and contribute towards their social security fund which is a requirement for all places of work.
Walusimbi applauded Ayota for his great work towards mobilizing the Ugandan diaspora to invest back home which responsibility he took on since way back when he was a leader in the Ugandan North American Association (UNNA) were he served as a Chief Finance Officer and later a Chairman of the Electoral Commission.
“We are committed to work hand in hand with your office to mobilize more Ugandans to save for their social economic transformation as well as encouraging the diaspora community to directly and indirectly invest back home,” Amb. Walusimbi noted.
On his part, the NSSF boss applauded Amb. Walusimbi for his tireless efforts towards mobilizing the diaspora and his brilliant ideas that would see the fund raise more saving for the development of the country.
Ayota said that NSSF has come up with a lot of changes which were approved in the new amended act that are tailored towards encouraging more Ugandans to save for their social welfare and protection.
“We lowered the threshold and now each employer even though he has one employee, he is mandated to save for that employee; the amendments opened up where people can save voluntarily because before you couldn’t,” Ayota said.
Ayota noted that with the two pieces of legislation in place, they are open to collaborate with the Office of the President to see how to create awareness among migrant workers encouraging them to save for their future.
