In a significant turn of events, the National Social Security Fund has announced that its earnings have increased to Shs 3.52 trillion.
This development comes as NSSF has experienced an increase in earnings of 11%, with fund earnings having risen from Shs 3.2 trillion in the financial year 2023/24 to Shs 3.52 trillion.
Notably, the revelation was made at the Fund’s Annual Media Roundtable held at Kampala Serena hotel, where the NSSF managing director, Patrick Michael Ayota, told journalists that the growth in earnings is due to better performance across the Fund’s asset classes.
“For the second year running, we saw a significant increase in revenue from our real estate income, interest income, as well as dividend income. Compared to the previous financial year 2023/24, interest income increased from Shs 2.34 trillion to Shs 2.88 trillion, and dividend income from our listed equity investments increased from Shs 175.0 billion to Shs 238.14 billion. Our real estate income increased from Shs 13.24 billion to Shs 16.64 billion. Other income increased from Shs 382 billion to Shs 651 billion,” Ayota noted.
Ayota mentioned that the Fund’s dividend earnings include Shs 61.8 billion from MTN Uganda, Shs 36 billion from Airtel, Shs 21.5 billion from Equity Bank, and Shs 18.6 billion from CRDB Tanzania.
Additionally, Shs 16 billion from KCB, Shs 15 billion from Safaricom, Shs 15 billion from Tanzania Breweries, Shs 13.7 billion from NMB Bank, and Shs 13 billion from Stanbic Bank, among others.
He added that the growth in revenue and contributions led to an overall increase of 17.5% in the Fund’s Assets Under Management (AUM), which increased from Shs 22.13 trillion in the Financial Year 2023/24 to Shs 26.0 trillion in the Financial Year 2024/25.
“Generally speaking, the investment environment in the last Financial Year was quite challenging. Despite a slight improvement in economic growth from 6.1% to 6.3%, and while inflation remained under control, we saw some volatility across the East African stock market. The Uganda shilling strengthened against the US dollar and the regional currencies. Against this background, our performance this year has been impressive and bodes well for our future,” Ayota added.
Ayota explained that the benefits paid out to members also increased from Shs 1.12 trillion in the Financial Year 2023/24 to Shs 1.32 trillion in the Financial Year 2024/25, despite a decline in the number of claimants from 44,250 to 43,501.
Despite the payout benefits to members increasing, Ayota highlighted that the rate of compliance lagged, declining from 57% in the Financial Year 2023/24 to 52% in the Financial Year 2024/25.
“The decline follows a change in the law in 2022, where all employers, regardless of the number of workers, are obliged to remit contributions, which has increased the number of employers that have cash flow challenges,” Ayota added.
He explained that the compliance rate measures whether eligible employers submit contributions by the 15th of the following month and remit the correct amounts. Ayota noted that while the lower compliance rate was concerning, it reflected an expanded database of employers.
“We have more employers now in our database, and we are trying to help them understand the need to comply. And it will take a while to convert all of them to be compliant,” he added.
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