Corporate Governance Aligned to King IV Principles

Giving effect to Corporate Governance Codes

The tables that follow are structured around the five core categories of King IV. These are:

Leadership, ethics, & corporate citizenship

Strategy, performance, and reporting

Governing structures & delegation of authority

Governance of functional areas

Stakeholder relationships

Speedy decision making is the essence of good governance.

In the tables, we show how the Fund has embraced and aligned to King IV Principles and the UK Corporate Governance Code in their efforts to achieve the spirit of what is intended by the five core categories above.

Principles 1–3: Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Citizenship

King IV principles and our activities

LEADERSHIP, ETHICS AND CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
  • Principle 1 – The governing body should lead ethically and effectively
  • Principle 2 – The governing body should govern the ethics of the organisation in a way that supports the establishment of an ethical culture
  • Principle 3 – The governing body should ensure that the organisation is and is seen to be a responsible corporate citizen

EFFECTIVE AND ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
  • The Board sets the tone for accountability, ethics, and integrity, acting in the best interests of all stakeholders
  • The Board implements procedures and guidance to deal with actual or potential conflicts of interest and at the beginning of each Board meeting, Directors have an opportunity to declare any interest that could result in a conflict of interest
  • Through the Fund’s values, we commit to being ethical and honest, and thereby inspire trust in all our business dealings. The Fund has a formal ethics policy and code of conduct in place, as well as dedicated resources to embed requirements and investigate ethics and integrity concerns reported as endorsed by the Fund’s “Whistleblowing Policy.”

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
  • Sustainability is deeply rooted in our DNA, and our purpose-driven leadership model continues to place value creation for our stakeholders and wider society
  • Our objectives are focused on giving back to the community and promoting education, health, financial wellness/literacy, and the environment through our Corporate Social Investment Initiatives (CSI) in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Outcomes

DESIRED OUTCOME
  • Effective and ethical leadership, to be an organisation with an ethical culture, as well as being a good corporate citizen

EFFECTIVE AND ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
  • Continuous monitoring and reporting on the ethics performance of the organisation
  • Ethical leadership and transparency throughout the organisation
  • The values embodied by NSSF drive a sound culture and inform how we expect our employees to behave, as well as our stakeholders during their interaction with us
  • Ethics cases are investigated by Internal Audit in a confidential and timely manner and investigation reports are submitted to Management and the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARC) for oversight
  • An external firm is being onboarded to create an ethics hotline/whistle-blowing avenue

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP
  • The Fund is committed to acting in a manner that is responsible and transparent through the promotion of sustainable business practices, environment, employee, and community development, supporting the achievement of prioritised SDGs as follows:
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest
  • Performance evaluations of the Board, Board Committees, and members
  • Ethics policy
  • Whistleblowing policy
  • Code of conduct
  • A governance structure with clear delegation of authority to ensure an ethical culture
  • Procurement policies and practices
  • Anonymous reporting of unethical behaviour
  • Our sustainability drivers are embedded in our strategy and are focused on ensuring sustainability for our business, our customers, communities, society, the economy, and the environment
  • Commitment to prioritised UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Water and Energy Management Policy
  • Revisiting/reaffirming committee terms of reference
  • Formalising action plans to address the areas of improvement identified in the outcomes of the 11th Board evaluation
  • The Board and executive management set the tone for an ethical culture in the Fund
  • Staff are encouraged to report unethical behaviour without reprisal
  • Monitoring and investigation of ethics cases by Internal Audit
  • Ethics to promote an ethical culture is embedded in the NSSF HR Manual which is given to each staff member
  • The ARC monitors oversight of the implementation of the ethics and whistleblowing policy and code of conduct
  • Environmental risk assessments on all the Fund projects are undertaken annually in partnership with the National Environmental Authority (NEMA)
  • Specific targets to reduce energy, paper, and water consumption
  • Compliance with City Council Solid Waste Management ordinance of 2000

Principles 4–5: Strategy, Performance and Reporting

STRATEGY, PERFORMANCE AND REPORTING

  • Principle 4 – The governing body should appreciate that the organisation’s core purpose, its risks and opportunities, strategy, business model, performance and sustainable development are all inseparable elements of the value creation process
  • Principle 5 – The governing body should ensure that reports issued by the organisation enable stakeholders to make informed assessments of the organisation’s performance and it’s short-, medium-, and long-term prospects


STRATEGY

  • The Board is responsible for the strategic direction of the Fund and has provided an enabling governance framework to support management to achieve its strategic plan by 2025

Outcomes

DESIRED OUTCOME

  • Optimised performance, value creation and sustainability

 

STRATEGY

  • The Fund has a clearly defined strategy incorporating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) geared toward long-term value creation
  • To acknowledge what has to date been inherent in our strategy, we have included our sustainability drivers in our strategy to demonstrate our commitment to delivering on the SDGs that we have prioritised as well as the environmental and social (ESG) impact we would like to make as a Fund
STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE

STRATEGY, PERFORMANCE AND REPORTING

  • Principle 4 – The governing body should appreciate that the organisation’s core purpose, its risks and opportunities, strategy, business model, performance and sustainable development are all inseparable elements of the value creation process
  • Principle 5 – The governing body should ensure that reports issued by the organisation enable stakeholders to make informed assessments of the organisation’s performance and it’s short-, medium-, and long-term prospects


STRATEGY

  • The Board is responsible for the strategic direction of the Fund and has provided an enabling governance framework to support management to achieve its strategic plan by 2025

Outcomes

DESIRED OUTCOME

  • Optimised performance, value creation and sustainability

 

STRATEGY

  • The Fund has a clearly defined strategy incorporating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) geared toward long-term value creation
  • To acknowledge what has to date been inherent in our strategy, we have included our sustainability drivers in our strategy to demonstrate our commitment to delivering on the SDGs that we have prioritised as well as the environmental and social (ESG) impact we would like to make as a Fund
STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE

BOARD ACTIVITIES 2021/2022 IN SUPPORT OF STRATEGY

Business Perspective Key Issue(s) Assessed Broad Strategic Intervention(s) Definition of Success Position in 2020/2021 Position in 2021/2022
Customer
  • Customer experience (pain points due to data quality and manual processes)
  • Inadequate engagement with customers across the life cycle
  • Ubiquity in customer service channels
  • Increased self-service
  • Product innovation
  • 95% customer satisfaction
  • 86%
  • 82%
  • Customer service declined due to midterm payments and the challenges with the new core system
Finance
  • Deliver a real rate of return on customers’ savings
  • Improve options for financial protection
  • Diversify the investment portfolio
  • Improve delivery of real estate projects
  • Product innovations that deliver enhanced financial protection
  • Return of at least 10-year moving average of inflation +2%
  • UGX 20Tn Assets Under Management (AUM)
  • Total assets UGX 15.5Tn

  • UGX 17.25Tn

  • Progress towards UGX 20Tn by 2025 is on track
Processes
  • Manual interventions in key customer processes
  • Inadequate data quality for agile business decisions and deeper customer insights
  • Business Process Re-engineering (Skyfall)
  • Business Intelligence and Data Maturity Model Project
  • Straight-through processing contribution project
  • Pay customer benefits within 1 day
  • Update member statements in 24 hours

  • 8 days
  • 12.3 days
  • Delays were caused by an increase in the number of claims. Total claims rose by over 60% and the cost of claims went up by 85%. There were also delays caused by the new core system implementation challenges
Learning, Culture, Growth
  • Progress maturity as a high-performing organisation
  • Become a talent magnet and nurture top talent
  • Improve staff work experience
  • Address key “hygiene factors” to improve the work environment
  • Re-organise structure in line with process re-engineering to add more value to jobs (70:30)
  • Improve reward and recognition programme
  • 95% staff engagement rate
  • 94%

  • 92%

  • Elevated levels of staff engagement have been maintained

STRATEGY, PERFORMANCE AND REPORTING

PERFORMANCE
  • Key performance measures are aligned to the strategic objectives which translate into an organisational scorecard, cascading into individual scorecards

REPORTING
  • The Board ensures that it provides transparency to key stakeholders, both in the good and tough times, by providing timely and balanced information, and in so doing, promotes stakeholders’ confidence in the business. The NSSF reports the material results of its performance internally and to stakeholders. The Board is responsible for providing reporting guidelines regarding quality and depth of reports, meaningfulness, and relevancy to meet internal and external needs
  • We strive to give effect to the reporting requirements of the various leading practice codes/guidance/frameworks and good practice in our industry, etc
REPORTING FRAMEWORKS

Outcomes

PERFORMANCE

  • The Fund continues to deliver excellent results in all metrics we measure ourselves against to ensure achievement of milestones and execution of strategy

 

REPORTING – INTERNAL REPORTS

  • The Board and its committees are supplied with complete and timely information from management to enable the Directors to discharge their responsibilities

 

EXTERNAL REPORTS

  • The NSSF publishes an annual integrated report and audited financial statements (See link) to ensure all stakeholders remain informed. The integrity of the information included in the reports is overseen by the Board, with specific areas of reporting reviewed and challenged for appropriateness by the relevant Board committees, as well as our internal audit and combined assurance functions
  • The Board ensures reporting of accurate, complete, and balanced information in the Integrated Report
  • Information related to the required disclosures appears in our Integrated Report. This includes matters relating to our strategy and detailed sections about our long-term goals, medium- to long-term targets, stakeholder engagement, governance approach and outlook. Additionally, our governance principles, including the King IV application are included in this chapter
  • Board training included integrated reporting to deepen Directors’ understanding of the requirements of the International Integrated Reporting Framework
  • A ten-year strategy, supported by detailed Board strategic planning sessions
  • A fully integrated strategy, risk and opportunity and performance management process
  • Execution of strategy is delegated to the DMD
  • Adequate budget and resources to deliver strategy

Board assessment of the Fund’s performance against the strategic targets and overall strategy.

The NSSF publishes an annual integrated report and audited financial statements to ensure all stakeholders remain informed
The integrity of the information included in the reports is overseen by the Board, with specific areas of reporting reviewed and challenged for appropriateness by the relevant Board committees, as well as our internal audit and combined assurance functions. The annual financial statements are audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
PRINCIPLE 6: Governing Structures and Delegation

Quick Contact

Head Office

Main Links

Ⓒ 2022 - All rights are reserved. NSSF Integrated Report. Created by Joshero (Pty) Ltd.