The National Social Security Fund has paid out Ushs78.8 billion to 4,417 eligible members to date, UGX 20.8 billion above its weekly target of UGX 50 billion.
Speaking to media at a press briefing held today at Workers House, the NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that the payments reaffirmed the Fund’s commitment to avail liquidity to pay all midterm benefit obligations within the said period.
“We committed to payment of Ushs 50 billion per week starting on March 17, 2022. So far, we have paid above our weekly target by over Ushs28.8 billion. This implies we have paid 30% of the total members who have applied for midterm within the first one week since we commenced payments,” Byarugaba said.
“Whereas Regulations prescribe payment of Midterm Benefit within 45 working days, we commit to pay qualifying members in a timely manner on a weekly basis, before the prescribed timelines. We have demonstrated this commitment in these first 2 weeks,” Byarugaba added.
NSSF earmarked Ushs1 trillion for payment of the Mid term benefit under Section 20A of the NSSF Amendment Act 2022, following the President’s assent to it and subsequent gazetting in January
A total of 14,690 applications amounting to Ushs305Bn, were received by the Fund since it started the process on 7th March. 8,697 of the applications were received at the Fund’s branch network and the temporary set-up at Kololo airstrip while 5,993 were received online via its self- service platforms.
Byarugaba explained that the Fund had trained and deployed over 80 staff members specifically to attend to walk-in customers in addition to the self-service options.
Byarugaba also clarified that the self-service options had stabilized following recent complaints of system errors where some members had failed to submit their claims online. Applications can be made through mobile phone (on MTN and Airtel networks) which is applicable for qualifying members whose balances are below UGX 15M and online web platform applicable for members with balances above UGX 15M, in addition to the Fund’s branches.
“We have seen a few complaints regarding the time it takes to release the money from the Fund and the time individual member bank accounts are credited. We would like to clarify that depending on the efficiency of the bank, this process takes between 1 to 2 days.” Byarugaba concluded