A lot has been said in the Ugandan press about the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) lately especially focusing on the so-called 'Temangalo land deal' in which a cabinet Minister's family company sold land to the NSSF in a manner that is claimed not to have followed procurement guidelines. The press has placed so much focus on the 11 billion Uganda Shillings involved but very little on how to manage and invest the remaining trillions. The public discussion and press reports on the Temangalo deal do obscure the achievements so far made by NSSF. I find this very unfortunate. Also far remotely relegated and obscured is public debate on complementary methods of how to harness the opportunity presented by the millions of Dollars in NSSF’s coffers for hitherto unattempted national development-oriented ventures. I did send this article to two leading dailies in Uganda but I have fears that it may also not find favour in Newspaper Editors’ eyes. Thank God for personal blogs.
I do propose just one of several complementary methods of investing NSSF funds for the benefit of a wider range of Ugandans and subsequently national development.
We have lately seen a great demand (by Uganda and her citizen) for tertiary education even amidst the rising cost of tertiary education. The rise in demand is indicated by the number of applications for enrollment into universities and other institutions of higher learning including purely private tertiary institutions that are not directly subsidised by government. We have also heard the cry by many universities especially government-owned ones for the need to raise tuition to meet, at the very least, the cost of training requirements for the various courses they offer.
I also believe that it is government’s desire to train its citizen (especially at university level) and attain a critical mass of professionals. The demand for training is therefore very high, actually beyond what the existing institutions can meet. Sadly, some of the Ugandans do not get access to tertiary institutions not because of poor grades but because of their inability to afford tuition costs. This is especially true for children from the poverty-stricken and war-ravaged areas of the country.
As it is now, the NSSF situation could be described by two contrasting words at the same time: comedy and tragedy. One of the amazing comedies is that there are probably individuals who have some savings with NSSF and yet have failed or are struggling to support their biological children in university. The tragedy is that such a cycle will continue unbroken for many unless a deliberate supportive intervention is made.
While the above scenarios are playing out, there is some huge sum of money being accumulated and invested in various ways except in national human resource development. I am told that one of the factors that led to the rise of Singapore from the level of a third world country to a developed country status in 25 years is a deliberate strategic investment in human resource development. Uganda ought to learn from its ‘buddy’ of the 1960s and invest in the development of its human resource.
So on the one hand there exists the need to develop human resource and the motivation of Ugandans to acquire skills amidst inability to pay for the training, and on the other there is a growing pool of largely stable and possibly perennial fund in NSSF that ought to be partly profitably invested in national human resource development. This does not deny the fact that part of the funds is currently held in various profitable investment portfolios. Kudos to Mr. David Jamwa and his team.
Where therefore do the human resource development needs for the nation and its citizen and the presumably vast amounts of money available in NSSF and the latter’s need to invest the money meet?
I, deliberately and boldly, propose that the NSSF Management and Board considers the establishment of a well-controlled and targeted university (tertiary institution) education loan fund as one of the ways of profitably investing the NSSF fund. The benefits of such a scheme are several including, for example, human resource development for the nation (with a hopefully significant positive impact on the economy); profits for NSSF (higher interest to the fund owners – the workers); skills empowerment of a section of Ugandans who would otherwise have not accessed higher education training; a sense of responsibility inculcated in the beneficiaries of the scheme; an increased pool of job creators.
I am told that in many developed countries every willing citizen will not fail to go to university because of lack of funds. Their governments provide loans to support those who cannot afford to pay from their (family) savings. In Uganda, we may not have the capacity to do it as a government - so I think - but looking for synergies in the private sector is probably the way to go. NSSF is a potential candidate worth wooing into this noble cause.
With the little exposure I have had through my voluntary activities with a bursary scheme, with my few years of work experience in higher education and a few years’ experience with of a profitable Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) whose profits are mainly earned through loans, I am convinced that such a scheme can be manageable and will accrue enormous benefits for NSSF and the nation and her citizen.
There is no space for details of such a project to be discussed here. Besides, there are still several begging questions. However I guess that establishment of such a scheme might call for some legal and policy paper work involving a few Government Ministries / departments, NSSF, the universities and possibly other players in the private sector. I am confident though that if this is driven by the willing heart of government, these processes would not take ‘donkey’ years.
It would also call for appropriate human resource capacity adjustments in NSSF and implemented in a piece-meal phased-out approach. An affirmative action and quota system would be an important consideration in the initial 3 to 5 years. Not because I am from a war-ravaged area but because I know the extent of need (amidst tremendous potential) in the region, I would propose a gender-sensitive affirmative action in favour of the war-affected areas of West Nile, Northern, Eastern and some parts of Western Regions of Uganda.
For God and my country.
