The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has today launched a Voluntary Membership Plan that will provide employers and workers that are not compelled by the mandatory provisions of the NSSF Act the opportunity to voluntarily save for their retirement.

The Fund also introduced a mobile money platform through which it will receive voluntary savings through its code *254#.

Addressing journalists at Workers House in Kampala, the NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that the Fund is responding to a need for a voluntary savings option by many Ugandans as well as enhancing the Fund’s growth strategy in terms of membership and contributions.

“The NSSF Voluntary Membership Plan will enable us recruit and register 2 types of voluntary members – Voluntary Employers – Under NSSF (Voluntary Registration and Contributions) Regulations, and Individual Voluntary Contributors with specific reference to Sections 10 (1) and 10 (3) of the NSSF Act respectively,” he said.

“Under these provisions, we will recruit and register employers with less than 5 employees as well as accept contributions from former NSSF members, whom we paid their respective benefits, but are still able and willing to save with us,” he added.

Byarugaba said that there is a potential customer base of close to 2 million workers who do not have any form of social security cover out of about 4 million Ugandans working in the formal sector.

Giving assurances on the viability of the NSSF Voluntary Membership Plan, given the low savings culture in Uganda, Byarugaba said that the trend is improving and the Fund has already tested the market and received positive feedback.

“We have been piloting this plan in the market and it has been well received. As at end of May 2017, we had recruited 3,017 voluntary employers, and have collected over Ugx 2.6 billion”.

“In addition, we recently carried out a survey and about 19% of workers in the formal sector who do not have social security cover told us they would start saving as soon as the Fund started a Voluntary Membership Plan, which is about 836,000 people. There is also an additional 700,000 former members of the Fund whose accounts are currently inactive mainly because their employers no longer remit contributions, or are now self-employed. They would like to continue save with us,” he said.

In addition to receiving contributions, the Fund is also set to start paying its members who qualify for their benefits through mobile money via its existing NSSFGO code *254# accessible to the MTN and Airtel subscribers.

Byarugaba said that mobile money is a channel the Fund must embrace not only for the convenience of contributors and beneficiaries but also because it offers a number of advantages.

“It eases reconciliation with an option of automating the upload of contributions onto members’ accounts, enables submission of only correct information, and instant confirmation of received contributions to the member through automatic text messages. It will also provide single trip convenience to members accessing low value benefits,” he said.

The press conference was attended by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda Executive Director Gideon Badagawa, Uganda Manufacturers Association Executive Director Mubaraka Nkuutu, who applauded the Fund for introducing the plan and pledged to work with the Fund to promote it among their members.

The Fund has registered consistent membership growth over the last 6 years. Last Financial Year, over 106,000 new members and over 2,800 employers were registered. The Voluntary Savings Plan is expected to accelerate this growth in the medium and long terms.

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BY GEORGE MANGULA

Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which opened shop in Uganda in 2014 as an affiliate of CBA Kenya, has now launched its private banking service for diplomats, senior government officials and the wealthy.

CBA sources said the new unique service, which starts this week, “will give the targeted clients exclusivity, convenience and personal touch never seen before in Uganda- giving clients different banking options.”

Dorothy Nyakana, the bank’s Private Banking Manager, says the service targets salaried employees earning net salaries of shs10 million and above. It also targets top professionals including lawyers, engineers and businessmen with a net of shs1 billion.

“We …took time creating an attractive deposit option coupled with preferential lending terms to help manage and grow our customers’ wealth and enhance the client offering for our private banking clients,” Ms Nyakana says.

Ms Nyakana says that the CBA private Banking Account defines the spectrum of value propositions, a dedicated private banking relationship manager, access to preferential foreign currency exchange rates.

She adds there is choice of either a shilling and dollar Gold credit card and a globally accepted priority pass that is accepted in exclusive lounges in more than 800 airports worldwide.

The manager says they are hopeful the new service will make the bank a key player in this market, “especially as we are renowned for enhanced customer service experiences attained through robust information systems and efficient communication platforms.”

Nyakana says those who will open the private banking account with CBA will receive comprehensive and flexible range of products and benefits such as home loans, business loans, overdrafts, fixed and call deposits.

The financial products, according to Ms Nyakana, are offered at preferential rates.

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By George Mangula

Uganda must adopt the use of irrigation and fertilizers on large scale if the country is to have enough food for consumption and sale, Alhaji Momodou Jallow, the FAO Representative in Uganda, has said.

Mr Jallow echoed the statement as he addressed participants attending a meeting to discuss how best Uganda can be food sufficient against the forces of drought and pests such as the fall armyworm.

Jallow’s warning comes at the time when Uganda is battling the effects of the recent prolonged drought that left most regions with inadequate food, leading to sharp increases in food prices.

The UN official said it was high time Uganda avoided dependence on rainwater and instead adopt all kinds of irrigation to farm, citing Israel, a desert country that has used irrigation for decades to produce food for domestic and export purposes.

He added that fertilizer application was also necessary to replenish soils with nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that all lead to high crop yields.

His call was re-echoed by Bolton Uganda’s Agnes Kabwisho, who advised the government of Uganda and commercial farmers to emulate neighbouring countries like Rwanda and Kenya where there has been a significant uptake of irrigation and fertilizers.

“It is a shame that we are buying carrots from Kenya when we can grow them here,” she said. Kabwisho, whose company is agro-based, further said farmers needed to be sensitized on the use of manure for better yields.

The officials said the technologies are a necessity given the fact that Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations in the world, meaning the country must have means of availing food for the future generations. Currently, Uganda’s population is estimated at 37 million people and this is expected to more than double in 2050.

In a related development, the government has said it purchased fertilizers that will be distributed to some farmers as they receive pesticides.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s meteorological department has warned that the Southern part of the country stands to have fewer rains for the present period, arousing fears again that the country, which has been receiving some rains, could go back into the drought that was responsible for the scarcity of food.

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