The acting NSSF Managing Director, Patrick Ayota has urged private sector members to tap into growth opportunities by having their own savings.
Giving a key note address during a PSFU’s lead firm structure project review meeting at Sheraton Hotel Kampala, Ayota said it is appalling that the country relies much of its budget on borrowing from abroad yet the same funds can be mobilised back home.
“As a country if we don’t wake up and break this cycle( of borrowing, mostly from abroad), we remain poor. We can only change this through encouraging savings. We need to increase the willingness of the people to save. Let everyone encourage people they work with to save. As Uganda grows, your individual businesses will grow and you will yourself grow,” Ayota said.
The NSSF boss explained that it is possible for the country to borrow solely from within other than going for expensive loans abroad but noted this can only happen if Ugandans are encouraged to save.
He said this can be through forced savings like NSSF and voluntary savings to create a big pool from which government can borrow at a lower interest rate for infrastructural development.
“We can plug in together to see that we find a way of increasing domestic savings. Don’t say you have little to save. PSFU members should be encouraged to save with NSSF and as Uganda grows, your businesses will grow and you will personally grow.”
“Through domestic savings, we can develop most of our infrastructure projects by borrowing from ourselves other than foreign borrowing.”
The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) Executive Director, Stephen Asiimwe could not agree more.
“The need for us to have domestic savings and not wait for others to come in and give us loans cannot be overstated. As PSFU , we are going to come to NSSF for partnerships on this. It has in the past been a mindset issue but we need to wake up and start savings,” Asiimwe.
“I am very optimistic that the interventions we have in place have the capacity to make this a reality. Let us work out a mechanism where we grow systems, processes but more importantly create a savings culture so that the money send away in form of interests on loans borrowed from abroad remains here. We are complaining about potholes but we can get an infrastructure bond to finance this locally.”
