The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda has won the 2017 International Social Security Association (ISSA) Good Practice Awards for their E-collections, a Straight-Through Process for contributions collection and Financial Literacy initiative, the Friends with Benefits campaign.

NSSF’s Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba received the awards during the Regional Social Security Forum for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 23^rd October. Byarugaba said that the awards were a testament that the projects undertaken in the last year were driving the Fund in the right direction.

“We are glad that our innovations efforts in improvement of thecontributions collectionsand financial literacy for our members has been recognized. As a Fund, we are committed to innovations that will not only improve customer experience, but alsoenable members live a better life”

The Straight-Through Process innovation is part of the Fund’s e-collections system that enables updates of member accounts within a day from an average of 3 days five yearsago. This means that once a member’s contribution is deposited to their account, they’ll be able to get an update within 24 hours.

Friends with Benefits is a financial literacy initiative thatprofiles former NSSF members who received and used their NSSF benefits to transform their lives. “Friends with Benefits initiative is aimed at promoting a savings and investments culture amongst Ugandans. We are currently running the 2^nd season of the campaign and call on NSSF beneficiaries to submit their stories to participate and inspireothers,” said Richard. “

The Awards attracted 70 entries from 30 organizations in 21 countries. “The record number of entries to this Good Practice competition is a testament to the progress that is being achieved to extend excellent social security services in the region,”said Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, ISSA Secretary General.

This is the third time that NSSF Uganda is being awarded by ISSA. In 2014, it was recognized for good practices in the areas of mobile phone based service delivery, stakeholder communication and engagement, the Annual Members Meeting initiative and institutionalization of a performance management system.

In 2008, the Fund received the Good Practice award for Africa for an entry on “Enterprise wide Risk Management” as well as a certificate of merit on the “Strategic Management Framework”

The ISSA Good Practice Award programme is organized on a regional basis over a three year cycle.