The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) received regional and local recognitions for its 2022 integrated annual report following awards it won from the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa (CGISA) Integrated Reporting Awards and the Financial Reporting (FiRe) awards on 10th November in Johannesburg, South Africa and Kampala respectively.
The Fund emerged overall winner in the category of Regional Company (from the rest of Africa) in the CGISA Integrated Reporting Awards beating competition from renowned African brands like Safaricom.
The CGISA Integrated Reporting Awards are co-hosted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Limited and are aimed at encouraging solid financial and non-financial reporting and full disclosure of information to all stakeholders of the Southern African business fraternity and other stakeholders. The awards allow organisations to be measured against their peers and offer the opportunity to develop and instill sound reporting practice through valuable feedback from a panel of judges comprised of financial experts and specialists. The judges’ deliberations were carefully audited by PwC.
Speaking at the awarding ceremony, Ranisha Dwarika partner at PwC said that global and local reporting trends depicted a move towards both increased corporate social responsibility as well as corporate accountability. These, she stressed, were key elements in maintaining and enhancing the reporting standards and requirements necessary for effective, meaningful indices for reporting.
According to Steven Sadie, the CEO of the Chartered Governance Institute of South Africa, the winning companies reflected integrated reports that balanced disclosure, transparency, and accountability on one hand whilst maintaining a positive social impact on the other.
Locally, NSSF won five accolades in the Financial Reporting (FiRe) awards held at Hotel Africana on the same day as the CGISA awards. It scooped Gold award – Integrated report of the year, Overall winner in the Public sector category and took the First runner-up award for the Communication, Sustainability and Corporate Governance categories.
The Financial Reporting awards aim at enhancing the quality of financial and business reporting in Uganda by encouraging the implementation of financial reporting standards and other best practices in reporting
According to the FiRe awards judges’, “the Fund presented an outstanding integrated report and demonstrated a high level of adherence to the guiding principles and content elements of the Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework. The organization provided a clear and detailed explanation of its value-creation process highlighting the key inputs, business activities, outputs, and outcomes. The report layout, summaries, and highlights provided useful context for the detailed information presented in the report.”
Patrick Ayota, the NSSF Deputy Managing Director said, “We are delighted by these recognitions because they show our hard work and our commitment to transparency and accountability. We will continue to tell a balanced story to our members and stakeholders through such platforms for a better understanding of the Fund’s ability to create value in the short, medium and long term.”
The NSSF Chief Financial Officer, Stevens Mwanje who led the team that developed the winning report said that the Fund adopted an integrated approach to the financial and non-financial reporting so as to provide a clear perspective of their business performance, prospects and impact on stakeholders.
This is the second time the Fund is winning the CGISA Integrated Reporting Awards having won the same in 2020. In addition, it has received several recognitions in the local Financial Reporting Awards over the years including Gold in 2018, Silver in 2017 and Bronze in 2019 among others.
