NSSF savers should have options of accessing their money

John is one of the employees who was recently informed by his human resource manager that his services are no longer required. The company has lost all its business due to the COVID-19 lockdown. In the letter terminating his employment, he was told that he will be paid for the days he has worked this month. He was told he will also be given a certificate of good conduct and a recommendation letter to help him in his search for a job.

John is the first born in his family. With his job, John has been able to look after his ailing mother who needs medication, pay school fees for his siblings and look after his family. He almost saves nothing as transport costs, housing, medical and education leave him with almost nothing. He was a dedicated worker but like many of his colleagues at work, the company has lost so much business that the owner has decided to send everyone home. It is sad!

With the economy in freefall, John can’t even start looking for a job. He spends the night awake wondering how to make rent and pay for all his expenses. In his circles, everyone is either at home or not sure for how long they will have a job. John was an active member of his local church but with no fellowships, his networking is now simply limited to his phone. Soon, buying data will be a problem. His dreams of a life where he can look after his family are now disappearing faster than the morning mist.

For the years John has been in employment, he has been saving with NSSF and he has Shs20m. It is a huge amount of money for him, access to it could help during this difficult time. NSSF won’t entertain him because there is no legal framework to pay him or so they say. The NSSF Act was made in 1985 when more than 75% of Uganda’s population was not yet born! He can wait until he is 50 without a job or 55. That is 10-15 years away. So what is the purpose of saving? What is the purpose of social security? In fact, what is social security?

There are many Johns out there. Those with enough resources are quick to scourge him for not saving. “NSSF only takes 5% of your money. What were you doing with the 95%?” they quickly demonize him. “Next time, learn to save your money,” says a man who works in a government ministry and earns Shs800,000 a month but lives in a house the size of Acacia Mall. “People should learn to work smart,” he volunteers more advice.

John was actually saving his money. He is very frugal. For the time he was employed, he only boarded the taxi to work. He always walked his way home so that every shilling is saved. He doesn’t drink alcohol and doesn’t have any side dish. But without social services such as education and health to write home about, he isn’t left with anything at the end of the day.

He looks with disdain at those who tell him to wait until he is 50 years old and unemployed or at 55 to get his money saved with NSSF. “What is the use of that money if I can’t look after my family? Will I ever live up to 50?” he asks but there are no answers.

There is an ongoing debate to allow people access to a portion of their money saved with NSSF with a figure of 20% thrown around. I think it is the wrong debate. People who save money anywhere should have options to access it. If somebody fixes money with a bank, for example, they can access it at any time although they will pay a penalty but they have a say on when to get it. People also have a say in which bank to save their money. If Bank A is crazy, they go to Bank B or Bank C. They have options and the terms always different.

Like we have seen everywhere in the world, monopolies behave as worse as brutal dictators. NSSF needs to have competition. What the government needs to push is that people are saving and open NSSF up to the competition. They will become more concerned about their savers than considering themselves as savers of Uganda’s economy.

John who saves with NSSF has no job but the people who manage his money are assured of their jobs — to manage his savings! Apparently, he will need it in old age. NSSF tells us that the majority of those who retire and get their money waste it within the first three years of getting it. That in itself calls for reforms.

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Favourable interest rates are good for everyone, not just government, banks must do more to curb digital financial crimes

#OutToLunch: Police, banks must do more to curb digital financial crimes By Denis Jjuuko A friend was recently riding on a boda boda in a leafy Kampala suburb when another speeding boda boda approached her. The approaching boda boda had a passenger, a young man, who grabbed her bag and sped off. It was in the early afternoon. It is a normal thing in Kampala to lose your bag or be attacked like that whether you are in one of Kampala’s exclusive suburbs or not. Walking on Kampala’s streets including the busiest ones is never safe. You simply don’t know when you will be attacked. Although she had some money and other essentials in her bag, her biggest concern was her smartphone. Like many people, a phone is one of those things that are hard to do without nowadays. She was frustrated and went on a frantic search for it. Reporting to the police and such other things. She can’t work without a phone so she decided to replace it as soon as possible so she can carry on with her business and be able to get in touch with her family and friends. As soon she got a replacement phone that afternoon, she started receiving several messages that scared her. The thieves who stole her phone were not ordinary ones or at least they have a network of sophisticated hackers. The messages she was now receiving indicated that money had been transferred from her bank account to another account within the same bank. This happened within a few hours or minutes of losing her phone. She hasn’t yet been able to trace the thieves and find way to get her money back. She most likely won’t succeed. Like most people who buy high end smartphones, she had thought it was one of those safe things and it couldn’t be easily cracked open in Kampala shortly after losing it. It seems the more technologically advanced smartphones become, the more sophisticated the hackers become too. There must be a racket in Kampala who send young men on boda bodas to grab smartphones so they can hack them and transfer money to their accounts within a few minutes. They must be sitting somewhere and waiting whose phone they land on. And the fact that they can transfer money illegally from one bank account to another, shows how confident they are that they won’t be caught. There is an increased number of Ugandans embracing digital banking and even a higher number using mobile money platforms. It is convenient and modern. One doesn’t have to always spend hours in the banking halls transacting. It is not 1990 anymore. Digital banking including mobile money had led to some financial inclusion with many people, hitherto unbanked, able to access financial services. There are even people whose only access to financial services is through mobile money. But how safe is their money? If somebody can lose a modern smartphone and within a few minutes they have lost their money, how can the banking and mobile money companies help them? How can police help them? Largely, the majority of Ugandans are left to suffer with losses. Trips to the police to help track the thieves become endless and costly that the majority of Ugandans have given up to even reporting about it. They know there won’t be much help to recover the money. The banks and mobile money companies will largely blame the victim and do everything in their power to protect themselves. Because we have spent much time ignoring these attacks and blaming the victims, the thieves have now gained so much confidence that they are attacking government payment systems. The case of Uganda losing Shs60 billion in 60 minutes when a payment was initiated by the Ministry of Finance to the country’s central bank is still fresh. Although the attack happened in September 2024, not all the money has yet been recovered. And we are talking about government here with all the resources and contacts you can imagine. Imagine how much is being lost by individuals and businesses. Like my friend, a small business owner, the thieves have set her several years back. She wasn’t able to pay her rent and salaries for April on time. She now has to borrow to keep her business running. The police and other security intelligence organs must put in a shift to curb the rampant digital financial and other crimes. Players in the financial industry must also continuously invest in technologies that limit these crimes while sensitizing their clients on these issues otherwise gains made will be lost when people return to old ways of banking or keeping the money in their pillowcases. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Favourable interest rates are good for everyone, not just government blueprint for politicians and entrepreneurs building churches

#OutToLunch: A blueprint for politicians and entrepreneurs building churches By Denis Jjuuko When it comes to religion, many times politicians, billionaire entrepreneurs, the middle class and other classes agree. At least on building magnificent houses of God. Across Uganda, many people have contributed or even single handedly built these houses of God. Fancy to a fault, majestically standing on hills with spires that compete with those seen in Hollywood movies. Many of these worship centres, particularly those single handedly built by one person or a family with their friends, are usually located in rural areas where the funders were born, walked barefoot to school before migrating to Kampala to find fortune and fame. The floors are of Italian or Spanish marble, porcelain or at worst polished terrazzo. Stained glasses with the beautiful image of the Virgin Mary complete the curvy life size windows. The pews are of the hardest wood. The world’s best sound engineers come in to install the public address system. The house of God must be fancy. Once construction is complete, they call in their Kampala friends for the grand opening. The clergy lines up at the foot of the building to welcome them. The parking lot is full of the most expensive SUVs. The parishioners walk in every prayer day fearful of stepping on the floors, sometimes so shiny that they see their own body reflections. Their best clothes can’t even be used to clean the pews. They can scratch them. For a moment, the poor are in heaven before returning to their houses where floors are screeded with cow dung. There is nothing wrong with people using their fortune and connections to build grand churches or mosques. It is their money; their appreciation of what God has helped them achieve. They no longer have some of these other problems so they can “give back” to God. The problem is whether the grandeur church is what the community really needs. Shouldn’t politicians, the rich and famous first do a needs assessment? Usually, besides the magnificent house of God stands a school with a falling roof or whose walls are being held in place by crooked timber poles. Windows are just wide openings where mild steel frames would do. Inside some of the classrooms, are anthills. Pupils sit on logs and like their homes, the cow dung is the main material used for floor screeding. Teachers look like they last had a decent meal on Christmas day. The health centre is miles away and poorly equipped. The only hope for survival whenever they fall sick is through prayer in the church built for them by the only person who was lucky enough to survive the biting poverty. Yet the funders go to India or Kenya or Germany whenever they feel any discomfort. And are not afraid to give testimony that last time they fell sick, they traveled to Europe for better management and while there, they were thankful to God for their life hence the magnificent church building. Yet the blueprint for an impactful church exists. In most cases wherever the Catholics built a church, they built a school as well and almost everywhere they set up their regional headquarters (read a diocese), they built a functional hospital. They knew that you can’t pastor the dead! They also knew that an educated population is good for them and their beliefs. Some people call it sustainability and perhaps that is why they have existed for millennia. You saw how they put on a show at Pope Francis’ funeral. Why can’t politicians and billionaire businessmen do the same? If you have Shs6 billion (nearly US$2 million) like we heard of the Ssembabule church or the one in Mitooma, why not build a church of Shs2 billion, a school of Shs2 billion and a healthy centre of Shs2 billion? You could also may be build all those with about 70% of the kitty and create an endowment fund with the remaining 30%. The annual interest from the fund could be used to operate the school and the hospital. If 30% of Shs6b is invested say in a long-term treasury bond, it could give a net return of approximately Shs255m per a year or Shs21.3m per a month, enough to subsidize a rural school and health facility. Alternatively, an income generating project could be established alongside the church building. A factory to add value for the parishioners. It could be a dairy plant or a coffee factory depending on the area. A scholarship for the needy bright students could be another alternative. That way people wouldn’t have to meet their creator ahead of time. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Favourable interest rates are good for everyone, not just government only we could learn from Pope Francis

#OutToLunch: If only we could learn from Pope Francis By Denis Jjuuko The death of Pope Francis came a little bit as a surprise. He had been seen publicly on Easter Sunday, another surprise, blessing the faithful from the balcony that overlooks St Peter’s Square. Even though he was visibly weak, it seemed he was on the road to recovery after spending more than a month in hospital being treated of double pneumonia. He was 88 years old. Pope Francis is the third pope to die in the last 20 years following John Paul II in April 2005 and Benedict XVI in December 2022 even though he (Benedict) had long resigned from this position due to ill health. That decision of Benedict to resign allowed Francis to assume office in March 2013. Less than two years after his election, Pope Francis made the long trip to Uganda, becoming the third pope to do so largely thanks to the Uganda martyrs. And like most of the papal visits especially to countries like ours, everything comes to a standstill. Roads are paved, buildings are rehabilitated and grass is planted, public holidays granted and that wasn’t any different in 2015. People traveled from far and near to attend the mass that he led. Even our politicians who usually don’t see eye to eye were seen shaking hands at the Uganda Martyrs Shrine in Namugongo. One wished the pope visited every day! Those who met the Pope either in Uganda, the Vatican or elsewhere all talk about his humility. As he departed Uganda, a photo is shared of him climbing the steps to his Shephard One aircraft at Entebbe International Airport. He was walking alone, one hand sometimes holding his papal soutane, and another carrying a black bag, perhaps with personal belongings. He could have had as many aides as he wished. He was the leader of more than a billion Catholics but he lived simply and perhaps sending a message to nobodies that they too can be humble. Many ministers in Uganda never carry their handbags, there is always somebody at hand to do so. He refused to move in expensive limos or SUVs while visiting Kampala preferring a simple black Kia hatchback. Again, in a country where every public official craves for the most powerful vehicles. He lived simply and probably wanted us to learn something. Servant leadership. Showing off was not his way of life. He also understood that the Catholic Church needed reforms in a world that is rapidly changing. It may not have made him a lot of friends within the conservatives but leadership is about making key decisions including those that are unpopular. That way he endeared many to the church. He wanted a world where peace existed. He prayed for peace and welcomed everyone including many that he probably didn’t agree with. Perhaps if they listened to him, the world would have been different. There would be less destruction. We can all live together. He kissed the feet of warrying parties and urged them to embrace peace. Those whose feet he kissed only shook hands for a day and some are at each other’s throats again. He must have died wondering what needed to be done to stop the wars and killings that go on unabated sometimes fighting for no particular reasons apart from the egos of leaders and wealth that they would still leave on earth. Pope Francis still sent a message to those who deprive wealth of others by stating in his will his desire for a simple burial without the ornaments and all stuff that his position could afford. If he didn’t enjoy a luxurious lifestyle when alive, it would mean nothing to his body. There is a lot that we can learn from Pope Francis. His humility, ability to embrace everyone and putting others first even when it came at a personal cost. He didn’t adhere to the advice of his doctors for complete rest. He kept on meeting people and drove through the crowd in his papal mobile on Easter Sunday. And if leaders can take his example, the world would be a better place. Peaceful and resources shared with everyone. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

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