NSSF launches campaign to recruit more members

MBARARA – The National Social Security Fund [ NSSF ] senior public relations officer, Victory Karamagi says they have launched a campaign aimed at encouraging more employers in the country to register their employees with the Fund.

While meeting employees of Pearl Dairies and journalists in Mbarara City on Friday, Karamagi said NSSF aims to increase membership to about 1.8 million

According to Karamagi, the campaign dubbed ‘Now You Come’ is meant to encourage all employers to register their employees with NSSF and start saving for the future.

The NSSF Act as amended requires employees to contribute 5 percent while employers contribute 10 percent of the employee’s monthly salary.

“We are moving around the country encouraging all the employers and employees to register and begin contributing to NSSF,” he said.

According to Karamagi, unlike in the previous years where companies employing 1-4 workers were not mandated to contribute, the amended NSSF Act 2022 provides that all employers must register with the Fund.

For an employee, it’s obvious to save for the future. Retirement comes to everybody, so it is important for an employee to save for the future,” he said.

Karamagi adds that, “Employers who contribute to NSSF get loyalty from their employees, which he said creates healthy employer-employee relationships.

In terms of business, Karamagi said it is now a requirement for a companies bidding government tenders and contracts to show evidence of registering with NSSF.

“If you are to supply products and services to the government institutions, the requirement is that you must be registered with NSSF and it has to issue a clearance certificate,” he said.

He said NSSF has extended amnesty for companies to register voluntarily until June 2023.

He added: “Many employers have not responded well to the voluntary registration in the period provided. However, the window has been extended up to June 28, 2023 for all employers to register. The law says if you don’t register you pay a penalty of 10 percent of the contribution every month.”

Karamagi says NSSF is successfully implementing 2015-2025 strategic plan.

“In terms of growing assets our target was 20 trillion and by end of March 2023, the Fund was at about Shs 18 trillion and our projection shows that we shall surpass that by 2025,” he said.

He said the Fund has also onboarded more 19,000 employees and over 3,000 new employers after the amended NSSF Act 2022 came into force.

“The drive is still on and our target is to enroll 1.2 million new members of the fund by 2025 and 50,000 employers are targeted to be registered by the Fund in the next two years to achieve a total of 1.8 million members by 2025,” Karamagi said.

Meanwhile, Sylivia Nayebare, the human resource manager of Lakeside Dairy Limited confirmed that out of 300 employees, 80 are registered to NSSF, adding that the company will register more staff with the Fund.

https://thecooperator.news/nssf-members-to-earn-9-65-interest-rate-on-savings/

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