A new face at the National Social Security Fund

Joseph Kimote, the NSSF General Manager, Strategy Research and Development. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • It’s a fresh start with NSSF – and the institution can now be seen as a customer centric home, helping the citizens of this country save substantially for retirement; focusing more on what the customer needs, to have a sustainable future.

A decade ago, national confidence dwindled in the institution mandated to secure precious funds set aside each month by Kenya’s workers.

All sorts of accusations and myths swirled about ill intentions, mismanagement and lack of care concerning the security of the nest eggs that few had managed to put aside.

Those bells pealed loud and clear and the managers at the helm of the institution have done some major public sock-pulling and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) today has a new face, and this beauty is definitely more than skin deep.

NSSF, established by an Act of Parliament is a service organisation created for public good. It offers social protection to all Kenyan workers in formal and informal sectors. Today, the Fund boasts a clean, professional resume with increased member contribution and a professional way of doing of business.

General Manager; Strategy, Research and Development, Joseph Kimote knows the work the team has put in to make sure that the collective interest of Kenya’s income earners are addressed.

MILESTONES

Milestones have been achieved within the last decade that places the Fund squarely in the running as on that aims to truly secure the future for many.

“The NSSF Act 2014– there was a need to transform NSSF from a provident fund to a pension scheme. We wanted a system whereby we can change the operations of the basic social security of this country, where we can actually give people pension upon retirement. A pension is more reliable…and for us to do that, obviously we had to change the legal statutes.

"Before we had the NSSF Act 258… We shifted that now, we went through a stakeholder engagement programme; we engaged the parliamentarians and we actually enacted a new act in 2014. That was a fundamental milestone because it changed the objectives of the institution, from a provident fund to a pension scheme, and that is a key achievement”.

NSSF has really gotten its act together to make sure that productivity is maximised and that the results are transparent.

“We didn’t have a performance management system at the Fund, we have gone a step further as a mechanism for increasing productivity… to reduce the balance scorecard, there is a performance management system and it is working very well for us to the extent now that we have performance targets deployed all the way from the managing trustee to the lowest person in the business. We are also now a performance conscious institution”.

AUTOMATION

Public institutions across the continent are often seen as not up to date with present and future trends especially where issues of funds are concerned, and NSSF has over the last few years made efforts to be 21st century compliant and there is rising efficiency in the manner in which business is done through an automated platform.

“We have also automated the way we interact with our customers; our core business activities… with a system that manages our core business operations. Administration, collection of contributions, payment of benefits and the way we engage our customers, employers and contributors on the online platform. We have largely digitised our operations both internally and in the way we operate with our customers. It was not there before, and it is another major milestone for us."

Professionalism and customer care are issues that rang clear when those bells sounded from the public years ago and they did not go unnoticed.

“We were the first public institution in this country to get ISO Certification which we got in 2016. We are going a step further to integrate all our systems and have what we call an Integrated Management System. We have increased our contributions exponentially.

"Five years ago, we were at Sh7 billion in contributions, now we do upwards of Sh14 billion. Five years ago we were at 1.2 million active contributors and now we have close to 2.9 active contributors. The Fund value five years ago was Sh130 billion and now we are talking about Sh220 billion – almost 100 percent increase.

"We are talking about an environment which was not open-minded in terms of market driven programmes and we say now we are an agile institution responsive to the needs of our customers. Obviously there is a lot of work to get to where we want to be, but we have made tremendous progress.”

AGM
NSSF promised to give good services, and now they want to take it a notch higher to the superior with a dedicated brand office to ensure they can offer this.

With professionalism and transparency as weapons of business, they are now running fund management operations in a very profitable, efficient and quite pragmatic manner so that we can give a good return to members.

NSSF is an institution for everyone in this country earning an income. Everyone is eligible to join and start saving whether employed at an organisation or self-employed. The plans to get a proper pension scheme operational are under way, and the hope is to get contributions to at least 30 percent of the work force in the next five years.

The promise stands to pay benefits as and when they fall due. At the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Fund shows its records and projects the future to the general public and stakeholders as they will do on May 31st.

Everyone has an opportunity to ask questions, present concerns and know exactly what profit-making activities the Fund is involved in.

SAVINGS

Kenyans are assured that investments are in safe hands with the top financial custodians in the country.

“We don’t keep monies. Investments are made properly with proper advice from fund managers and the follow. Investments are guided by the Board of Trustees by law with expert advice from professionalized systems in place,” Kimote says.

“The Fund should be the investor of choice and seen as the basic social security provider.”

At the AGM this year, connecting with an institution which now has a face, is a top objective on the agenda.

Kimote knows the Fund needs to do more to be able to guarantee a system that keeps the future secure for people.

“We need to mobilise more savings from the informal sector. We want to have strategic partnerships with institutions that already have the mechanisms in place to drive membership. We want to leverage on present systems to make payments and transact from the comfort of their business. Working with organised groups as a mechanism of increasing savings – going through existing memberships to secure their trust in order to help them save for their future”.

It’s a fresh start with NSSF – and the institution can now be seen as a customer centric home, helping the citizens of this country save substantially for retirement; focusing more on what the customer needs, to have a sustainable future.