Members of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) have received the richest return in the Fund’s history, with a 22.53% interest rate declared on their savings for the 2025/26 financial year.
Finance Minister Henry Musasizi announced the rate during the Fund’s 14th Annual Members’ Meeting on Thursday, September 24, 2026.
The new rate leaves last year’s 13.5% far behind and towers over the 11.5% paid for FY2023/24. It also blows past the previous high of 15%, declared for FY2017/18 when Richard Byarugaba was managing director.
The climb has been steady. Returns sank to 9.65% in FY2021/22, edged up to 10% the following year, then rose to 11.5% and 13.5% before this year’s jump.
In shillings, Shs5.44 trillion will be credited to members’ accounts, about Shs2.64 trillion more than last year. By comparison, the 11.5% declared in 2024 translated into a then-record Shs2 trillion payout. The actual amount each member receives depends on their qualifying balance. A member with Shs10 million, for example, would earn Shs2.253 million.
What drove the numbers
NSSF Managing Director Patrick Ayota said total income grew by 85%. Of that, Shs3.88 trillion was realised revenue, while Shs2.62 trillion came from fair-value and foreign-exchange gains, so roughly four in every ten shillings of income were non-cash gains.
Total assets rose by Shs6.86 trillion to Shs32.87 trillion, putting the Fund on course towards its Vision 2030 target of Shs80 trillion. Member contributions grew from Shs2.13 trillion to Shs2.42 trillion, and the Fund paid out Shs1.5 trillion in benefits to 50,499 members.
NSSF also reactivated 55,000 dormant members and, according to Ayota, beat its target of enrolling 300,000 new working Ugandans in the first year of its new strategy.
For the Fund, which has faced public scrutiny in recent years over its investments, the record declaration is a welcome boost.
