NSSF, minister pledge to speed up midterm access to savings

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has expressed readiness to pay out cash to savers under the midterm access following the enactment of the NSSF (Amendment) Bill which was assented to by President Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday.

Mr Richard Byarugaba, the NSSF Managing Director, said they are awaiting the gazetting of the law before they start paying out the benefits.

“I would therefore like to congratulate members of the Fund upon this milestone. We now await the publication of the Act in the Uganda Gazette and issuance of Regulations by the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development to guide the implementation process,” he said in a statement issued on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

Mr Byarugaba said the new NSSF Act presents a number of opportunities to the Fund’s members such as expansion of basic social security coverage where all workers can now save with the Fund, voluntary savings where savers can voluntarily save with the Fund, over and above the mandatory 15% contributions and enhancement of adequacy of social security benefits where the Fund can now offer more social security benefits.

“The Fund has over the last few months undertaken several initiatives in readiness for the implementation of this Act,” he explained.

While addressing journalists on Wednesday at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, Gender Minister Betty Amongi said that the ministry is already in the advanced stages of drafting the regulations that shall be tabled before Parliament for approval on terms and conditions of accessing the funds.

The law also grants an opportunity for persons with disabilities who have clocked at least 40-years and have saved with the scheme for 10-years, midterm access to 50 per cent of their savings.

The new Act has also been expanded to create new opportunities for employers to contribute to NSSF for all their workers irrespective of the number, unlike in the previous law where companies with less than five employees were exempted from contributing savings for their employees.

The NSSF Bill was first passed by the 10th Parliament in February 2021. However, it was returned to the House by the President after he rejected Parliament’s vote that the Ministry of Finance holds the supervisory role of the fund instead of of the Gender Ministry to eliminate bureaucracies in decision making.