Newly appointed NSSF Managing Director, Patrick Ayota has said his vision is to ensure the fund hits the shs50 trillion mark in the next few years.
“Going forward, we are cognizant of the new legal mandate the fund has as envisioned by the NSSF Act. We have developed our vision 2035. We believe we will be at shs50 trillion by 2025,” he said.
Ayota was speaking on Wednesday as he assumed office as the new substantive NSSF Managing Director.
The Minister for Gender, Betty Amongi last week appointed Ayota as the new NSSF boss for the next five years effective August, 18, 2023 to replace Richard Byarugaba who had served the fund since 2010.
The minister declined to renew Byarugaba’s contract and elevated his former deputy, Ayota to become the substantive Managing Director.
Ayota has served NSSF for 12 years, joining the fund as a Chief financial officer, serving as Deputy Managing Director since 2017 and as acting Managing Director for the last eight months.
Speaking of his vision, Ayota, 62 said the fund is currently running on a 10-year strategy until 2025 that he said is almost attained.
He noted that a new strategy that runs until 2035 has been set and that his main target will be fulfilling it.
“We want to expand social security to most Ugandans. Our purpose as a fund is to make lives better by making savings a way of life. Right now, we are giving that to only 10% of the Uganda’s working population. We want to drive that number to 50%. We are going to make sure we get involved in agriculture and the informal sector because that’s where the majority of Ugandans are,” Ayota said.
“We also want to ensure the satisfaction rate for our staff remains at 95%, the same number for customers and any of our stakeholders. The mantra for us for 2035 is simple, 50. 50. 95 to mean 50% coverage, shs50 trillion and 95% customer and employee satisfaction.”
The strategy
According to Ayota, creating willingness to save among Ugandans will be key on the agenda of the new strategy that runs until 2035.
“We will do so through innovation and agility. Creating willingness to save means that we implement empowerment and financial literacy programs, increasing compliance, make use of technology so that we serve our members as easily as they want us to serve them, whether they are in their bedrooms or in their gardens,” he said.
According to the new NSSF boss, they are going to roll out a sustainability strategy focusing on increasing the income of the fund’s would be members through job creation.
“For example if we make sure a farmer gets more money than they are now getting will mean they will save the extra money with the fund and will be supporting the ecosystem with the money that they will have.”
The fund
NSSF's assets under its management currently stand at over shs18.4 trillion, retaining its position as the largest social security Fund in East Africa by value.
Customer and staff satisfaction stands at 85% and 86% respectively, while the benefits payment timeline stands at 11 days.
