Plans are underway at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to name and shame employers who fail to remit employees’ contributions, in a bid to promote compliance.
This comes at a time when the Fund is intensifying regional engagements to boost compliance and expand social security coverage.Speaking during the 2026 Regional Employers Meeting held in Lira City, NSSF Managing Director Patrick Michael Ayota emphasized the need for employers to remit workers’ contributions in full, noting that failure to comply undermines workers’ financial security.
Although he acknowledged the challenges businesses face, Ayota insisted that compliance is critical for safeguarding workers’ savings. “Now, we recognize that sometimes businesses struggle financially.
Sometimes, cash flows are negatively impacted, and employers may not have money. So we cannot come and shut you down, because when we shut you down for not paying NSSF, even the jobs are lost.”
“We work with you, understand your challenges, and sign a long-term payment plan. Our expectation is that when you sign this plan, you honor it.”
In 2025, NSSF had set a target to grow the fund from 5.5 trillion shillings to 20 trillion shillings by the end of June 2025. However, the Fund surpassed this target, reaching 26 trillion shillings by the end of 2025.
It now has an ambitious target of 50 trillion shillings by 2035.“The most interesting thing is that when we set that target of 20 trillion, we did not know three things that would impact this country and our fund,” said Ayota.
“We did not know there was going to be COVID-19, which led to two years of closure. Secondly, we did not know we would be dragged before Parliament, which motivated us. And thirdly, we did not know that mid-term access was going to be introduced.
Mid-term takes out about 600 billion shillings a year from the fund,” he explained.According to Ayota, the Fund also aims to expand its membership from 3 million to 15 million Ugandans, with a strong focus on bringing in workers from the informal sector, especially those in agriculture.
“As I’m speaking now, the number of voluntary savers is around 65,000. They have contributed slightly over 103 billion shillings. More than half of them are consistently saving 5,000 shillings.”“So you can join that and see,” he added.
He noted that new strategies, including targeted agricultural programs, are being rolled out to close existing gaps and extend social security to farmers.
“The biggest portion of people outside the saving culture are farmers. So our question was: how do we make a farmer want to save with the Fund? And the answer is, unless we bring value to that farmer, there is no way they will save with us.”
Meanwhile, NSSF Chief Commercial Officer Geoffrey W. Sajjabi warned employers against under-declaring workers and urged them to take advantage of the ongoing amnesty to clear penalties.
“Even employers who think they are compliant lose nothing by conducting a self-assessment,” he said.
“This tool is available on the website, and it is quite automated. Once you input the gross figure, it computes the rest automatically, allowing you to determine whether you have any outstanding contributions.”
“And if there are any, and you pay within the 60-day window, your penalties are completely waived.”
The team also advised beneficiaries to plan carefully before investing their benefits. During the meeting, NSSF awarded 15 compliant entities from Northern Uganda as a way of encouraging others to fulfill their obligations. URN