Ever since the country entered into lockdown which meant that most people would not be working, and some of those working having their salaries cut off, those that have been saving with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) proposed that the fund allows them to access at least 20% of their savings to help them meet their financial needs during the COVID-19 lockdown.
This, the NSSF said, that it is subject to the amendment of the NSSF Act to provide the fund with the legal green light to heed to the savers’ requests.
Currently, the NSSF Amendment bill is before both the Parliamentary Committee on Gender, and the Finance Committee, but the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Finance Committee Henry Musasizi said that “There is still a lot to be done because what the savers want is midterm access on mandatory contributions, in other terms 15%.”
Unfortunately, in the NSSF Amendment bill tabled before the two committees, there is only provision for midterm access for those voluntarily saving with the fund and not the mandatory savers.
This means that those saving the 15% are not catered for in the amendment bill, and so they are likely not to receive the 20% they are demanding if the bill is passed by Parliament.