The Minister of State for Finance and Planning, Hon. Amos Lugoloobi has pledged to enhance the capabilities of the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) to enable it reach more Ugandans with its services that are geared towards preparing Ugandans for their retirement through saving. He was speaking at a familiarization meeting with the URBRA Board of Directors and Management.

Hon. Lugoloobi stressed the importance of supporting URBRA in its mandate, because the Authority regulates a big sector which contributes significantly to Uganda’s economy. URBRA is responsible for regulating the establishment, management & operations of retirement benefits schemes for the public & private sector in Uganda.

The Minister further urged URBRA to focus on creating awareness and promoting the culture of saving for retirement. According to the Uganda National Labour Force Survey 2021 issued by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) the estimated working population of Uganda is 20.5 million, of which 10 million are in engaged in activities for pay or for profit. However, URBRA’s Annual Sector Performance Report, 2022 indicated that only 3,015,807 were subscribed to a retirement benefits arrangement, of which 2,213,257 are members of the mandatory National Social Security Fund (NSSF). This shows a need for more sensitization and mobilization of Ugandans to save for retirement.

Minister Lugoloobi also urged URBRA to ensure the stability of the sector and safety of savers’ funds, emphasizing that Ugandans need reassurance, in the midst of the unfolding NSSF crisis. He emphasized the need to build capacity in URBRA to better deal with the challenges affecting the retirement benefits sector, which include low coverage stemming from public mistrust of the sector players due to past scandals, in addition to the lack of financial literacy among most members of the public.

To achieve financial literacy, Hon Lugoloobi pointed to the need for support to strengthen the regulator in every aspect including human resource and finances, so as to undertake the roles and functions of a regulator without constraint.

“We need to see how to make URBRA more powerful, more relevant, more public. Ideally, URBRA should be self-reliant and should not milk the taxpayer. It is ironical for the players to be stronger than the regulator. The regulator should be strong and authoritative. We need to discuss this issue,” he stressed.

The Minister re-echoed government’s commitment to ensure compliance to the NSSF Act (as amended) vowing tougher punitive measures against errant employers that do not remit the worker’s savings to their schemes, “there are those entities that are not remitting as they should, they are breaking the law and breaches have to be punished.”

Martin Anthony Nsubuga, the URBRA CEO noted that there are ongoing efforts to enforce compliance with the law which have led to a significant reduction in non-remittance of funds by employers from over 30 billion to less than 15 billion.