In the current environment that is characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, we have to respond with innovation, boldness, and agility
Deputy Managing Director
Patrick Ayota
Strategic Objectives
Stakeholders
Capitals
Risks
Our purpose is to make lives better for our customers. It drives our strategy which empowers our staff, informs our process design, and provides good returns to our members. Our future is dependent on how relevant, easy, convenient, and affordable we can deliver our services to our customers.
Challenges to meeting Vision 2025
Our Vision 2025 is summarised by the following strategic objectives: a 20 trillion Shillings Fund ($6 Bn), payment of benefits within 24 hours, becoming the employer of choice with a staff satisfaction rate of 95%, and wowing our customers with exceptional service to deliver a satisfaction rate of 95%. The year 2020/2021 was the 6th year of our 10-year strategic plan. The targets for the 2020/2021 year were to achieve a balance sheet size of UGX 15 Tn, benefits processing time of 7 days, staff satisfaction rate of 90% and a customer satisfaction target of 85%.
When Covid-19 happened, the entire country went into a lockdown, which posed the following challenges:
Unless these challenges were managed, we would not achieve the set targets for 2020/2021.
Actual results for the FY 2020/2021 reveal that the actions by the Fund mitigated the impact of the pandemic:
The NSSF - Daily Monitor Career Expo prepares students for the job market
Connecting with each other
In the midst of the pandemic, we made lives better through enabling technology and our work became more dependent on the way we connect with each other.
It became imperative for the Fund to expedite the investment in tools that would enable staff to work from home. The Fund provided the needed resources-phones, data, and moral support to staff. To keep the engagements alive, the Fund encouraged and supported regular online competitions on various fund subjects, with winning teams receiving shopping vouchers etc.
The Fund also simplified the online services and Call Centre services (registration, contributions, general inquiries and benefit claims) for our customers.
To connect even more intimately with our customers, the Fund embarked on a robust communication exercise through various channels, including Facebook and Twitter. We created a digital communication team that initiated, monitored, and responded to any pertinent conversation. Our Facebook reach went up to 22.7m, a YoY increase of 77%, You Tube views went up to 1.4m, a YoY increase of 620% and Twitter impressions went up to 5.8m a YoY increase of 67%.
New initiatives
Despite the lockdown, we rolled out a number of innovative initiatives, including the partnership with Mastercard Foundation (MCF). Together we created a $10m 5-year fund to provide entrepreneurs with seed capital and we set about building an online business learning platform with 8 modules. After completing the modules, the entrepreneurs then apply for seed capital. As at the end of the fiscal year, 1500 entrepreneurs were at various stages of completing the modules. Through this initiative, we will fund 500 startups, over the next 5 years. In the process, we aim to create 132,000 additional employment opportunities. This will not only increase the membership base but also widen the national tax base and improve the quality of life for Ugandans who become employed.
On the technological front, the Fund made great strides in the development of a new customised Pension Administration System (PAS). This is expected to go live during the 2nd quarter of FY 2021/2022. We also completed the system interface with key stakeholders including the National Identity Card Authority, Immigration, and the National Registration Standard Bureau. By utilising the database in these entities, these interfaces will enable us to provide a seamless service to members.
Looking forward
The amendment of the NSSF law opens up new opportunities for the Fund. From a current potential pool of 3m savers, the law will open the Fund to a potential pool of 16m savers. This opportunity has a significant potential to increase Uganda’s long term domestic savings from 13% of GDP to 33% of GDP within the next ten years. This level of domestic long term savings will leapfrog Uganda’s development and transform it into an Africa economic “tiger”.
To seamlessly deliver value to our members, our IT strategy was developed and anchored to deliver the following propositions: Ubiquity (anytime, anywhere access to services), Self-service (empowering the member or staff), and Straight through process (minimal human intervention). The roll-out of the new PAS and ERP system will complete the enabling backbone needed to deliver value to our members.
With the system in place, our focus will shift to data science. Using AI and other data mining tools, we aim to know and understand our customers intimately. We want to know what our members aspire for, what their pain points are, and what we can deliver to meet those needs. In the process, we will create products and services that are relevant for our members.
We can only deliver all this value through our people. The end touch point for our customers is our staff, whether through technology or physically. We want that to be a “wow” experience for our customer. So, we are reskilling our people and reorganising the structures of the Fund to deliver more innovative customer centric services.
We believe that Our Vision 2025 strategic objectives are within range and sight.