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Dr. Peter Kimbowa
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The past year was particularly unpredictable for the Fund due to the amendment of our mandate to the members. When I joined the Fund in September 2021, I was profoundly impressed by how efficiently the Fund leveraged on technology to deliver a high level of service to our members and engagement with our respective stakeholders.
During the financial year (FY) 2021, the number of Fund members increased by 4% to 2.2 million, and total Fund members’ balances grew by 11% to UGX 16.96Tn. This excludes an additional net UGX 440.5Bn withdrawn under the midterm access in the last quarter of FY2021/22.
The past year was particularly unpredictable for the Fund due to the amendment of our mandate to the members. When I joined the Fund in September 2021, I was profoundly impressed by how efficiently the Fund leveraged on technology to deliver a high level of service to our members and engagement with our respective stakeholders.
During the financial year (FY) 2021, the number of Fund members increased by 4% to 2.2 million, and total Fund members’ balances grew by 11% to UGX 16.96Tn. This excludes an additional net UGX 440.5Bn withdrawn under the midterm access in the last quarter of FY2021/22.
The FY 2021/22 was referred to as a ‘recovery year’ but I believe it challenged us to “dare to dream and dream to dare”; to be more aware of our purpose compared to prior years.
With so many unknowns including the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy, natural disasters, unprecedented cyber security threats, the NSSF (Amendment) Act and, so much more sent our way, it would have been easy to become lost and destabilised.
To remain relevant in this evolving digital age, the Fund became more proactive and focused on innovation.
We appreciated that the lives of our employees, members, and other stakeholders, were likely to be materially different after all these events.
We identified opportunities to create evolved products, enhance operations, reimagine our investment strategies and optimise our virtual footprint alongside the branch network.
Further enhancements to our systems to enable our members to self-serve, perform real-time member updates through our respective channels also meant having adequate visibility and planning for financial wellness – to grow in resilience as individuals and a society.
The Fund systems provide our members with a solid foundation for peace of mind. In the FY 2021/22, we made efforts to further strengthen this foundation, with the acquisition of a new Pension Administration System to boost service delivery to enable the consolidation of multiple legacy systems.
The Board worked hard to provide the Executive Team with guidance and also as a sounding board. We aimed to ensure that the Fund’s members were always supported through resilience and resourcefulness throughout the year.
The Fund has in fact, become a great example of an organisation that embraces change and evolves through the numerous awards received nationally and in the region. On behalf of the Board, I would like to warmly congratulate and thank the entire Fund team for these achievements.
The Board’s foremost focus area is ensuring that the Fund ultimately becomes our members’ first choice to sustain, grow and protect their social security. What is particularly pleasing is the fact that the new law presents a multitude of opportunities to serve our members as per their savings journey and goals.
This year, the Board engaged with the Executive Team to review the progress of Vision 2025 – the roadmap to transform the Fund into a purpose-led digital social security provider.
To seamlessly achieve this, the Fund continues to focus on:
Achieving these strategic ambitions requires a significant shift from how the Fund has traditionally operated, ensuring that we drive more data-driven decision-making and embed simplified governance and approval processes, underpinned by a high-performance culture across our workforce.
Our performance during the FY2021/22, as presented in this report, indicates that the Fund is up to this challenge, building on the valuable progress made in previous years since the adoption of this strategy.
As we re-imagine the Fund’s purpose, we will embrace the best ESG practices to ensure continued success. In our report we present with pride, an account of the extent of our current sustainability and ESG priorities.
The acceleration of the digital transformation agenda within the Fund was an enabler in preparing us to support our members facing any unfortunate setbacks such as post Covid-19 hardships. This approach formed the baseline for innovation, harnessing modern technologies such as robotic processes and artificial intelligence to provide proactive services and create unique value adding customer experiences. The Fund puts the needs of members’ first and realises that services that exceed expectations are the way to achieve it.
Data is now one of the most important corporate assets that can be used to make more informed, real time and impactful decisions. The Fund’s leadership team predicted and embraced its importance early on, so that the Fund could become the premier social security provider in the region.
Committed to pushing the frontiers of excellence in service, engagement, and operations, the Fund has faced several challenges which are likely to prevail beyond 2022:
Despite the challenges, as a Board, we remain steadfast to protect the Fund’s assets and the value for our members.
During the financial year the Board, together with the Fund’s leadership, undertook an Organisational Redesign aimed at improving our processes, removing duplications to serve our members better and preparing for the change in our business model mainly driven by the amendment of the NSSF Act. In the coming year the Board will oversee and support the Fund’s leadership as they adopt the revised business model.
I am confident that our diverse and experienced Board will serve the Fund well as we enter a new era of endless opportunities.
As trustees of our members’ savings, it is imperative that we ensure uninterrupted and error-free delivery of Fund services.
We achieve this through discipline, focus and consistency with robust governance, processes, and operations. In FY2021/22, the Board embarked on a review of our preparation for financial uncertainty.
Along with management we are putting in place an Emergency Response Plan to give the Fund direction in case of unforeseen service disruption.
While we made encouraging progress in the FY2021/22, we are embarking on further changes to help members accumulate more savings for their retirement. The Fund’s contribution rates for workers aged above 50 to 60 will be increased gradually over the next decade, to help strengthen seniors’ retirement adequacy during their working years. From January 2022, employees can voluntarily top-up on their savings which can be accessed through the various products that are being developed.
The Fund’s Boards have over the years set priorities aimed at developing key infrastructure that can lead to national development. The Board has overseen development of real estate projects – while addressing the challenge of affordability and an increase in the costs of basic infrastructure.
The FY2022/23 will see a good percentage of these projects being finalised.
Dr. Peter Kimbowa
CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS