NSSF Members Association

Workers in Uganda have thirteen trillion shillings in savings managed by a state agency which they can leverage to create wealth. These savings are a common interest that can unite workers to fight collectively for their rights. As a collective they can work together to pool funds to access affordable credit to fund their dreams. They can further as a collective have better bargaining power for increased funding for job creation. As a collective they can also provide oversight to their savings which are currently being mismanaged. As a collective they can invest together in businesses such as banking, rail transport and real estate at a scale unattainable as individuals. With collective oversight of their savings, workers can be inspired to save even more. Working Collectively as workers,  the strong can help the weak, the skilled can support the less skilled. 

In Uganda, unemployment amongst the youth is seventy percent. Less than 3.5 million Ugandans have social security savings out of a population of 40 million people. A majority of large scale enterprises are owned by foreign based investors and a large part of the population survives on small scale agriculture. Credit is expensive to acquire and usually requires collateral which many citizens do not have. In addition the state spends less than 0.5 percent of its budget on job creation and supporting investment. Where workers are able to get a job, they are subject to abuse and discrimination. The state has no minimum wage and institutions created to help workers or provide oversight to the executive are plagued by corruption and inefficiency. In summary no one is thinking of creating jobs or encouraging investment and entrepreneurship. The biggest contributor to this is bad government policies, lack of affordable credit, disunity amongst workers, high levels of illiteracy, misconceived curriculum and obviously Uganda as a developing country has its institutional challenges. The biggest contributor to the problem on the part of the workers is a poor savings culture and low wages, some worker work for less than two dollars a day. 

We want to unite workers to obtain collective strength. So as to use this collective to provide oversight to their savings which are managed by a state agency that has proved to be callous and failed to be transparent. 

We can use the collective unity to encourage a better savings culture and joint investment schemes outside the social security system.  We can leverage our savings both inside and outside the social security system to create wealth for the workers. We can leverage our collective strength to advocate for better working conditions, to fight for workers rights, to provide assistance to workers who need help, to advocate for more funding for job creation and investment. As a collective we can pool resources to provide affordable credit to workers to create their own personal businesses and create further employment opportunities.  As a collective we can provide training and support to graduates and members to improve their skills. As a collective we can attract funding from development partners to invest in members. We can use our savings as the foundation for citizen led investment.

Our main target is workers who shall in turn help their families and friends. But the biggest beneficiaries if we were to succeed are the unemployed youth who would benefit from the opportunities created by increased investment and training opportunities. We hope at our peak to create more than 500,000 jobs every year for our members and unemployed youth. 

We are in the process of organising members and formalising our association. We are open to both students and workers whether in public Service or in the private sector. 

Our main platform of engagement with the public has been social media due to the covid 19 virus and the resultant lockdown but we are committed to ensuring that their inclusive participation by all persons interested in being part of our solution.

Our engagement at this time is limited by restrictions on movement and financial challenges but we have our message is out there. We have had some positive responses but we anticipate a lot resistance from those benefiting from the system and resistant attitudes. 

Historically workers who have acted collectively have had better wages,  better benefits, better job security and more savings. We are basing our solution on acting collectively to solve challenges that face workers. We are rallying workers around a common goal to protect their savings, promote their rights and create wealth. 

Our solution is based on using our collective strength to leverage our savings to enable members not only create investments but to also save more of their income. We believe that as a collective we are able to help ourselves other than waiting for a saviour. 

Many people when they think of collective action by workers think about trade unions but workers can unite to create wealth and put their destiny in their own hands instead of depending on the state or working alone. Workers can as a group have vast financial resources that they can pool together to make a difference in their community. They can have a common interest that can bring together to improve their lives and those of others. 

Workers have, friends, relatives and defendants. They can be a link to these people who can join them in their collective action. We are using ourselves as a foundation for a concerted effort by citizens to take matters in their own hands to do what the state has failed to do. We shall show the state that when citizens are financially empowered, they can solve the problems facing the community and help each other. 

We shall invest in both small scale businesses as individuals which will create employment opportunities and we shall invest in large scale joint projects that create wealth, employment opportunities and larger returns for members.  As a group we shall be able to attract more outside funding than if we were acting as individuals.  As a group we shall have a louder voice is seeking state support and investment.  As a group we shall have our own funding, donor funding and state funding, not for hand outs or seminars but for investment and job creation. 

We shall use different technologies including banking software, asset registration software, television broadcasting, equipment, telecommunication equipment and many more technologies. Our joint investments will range from a workers bank, a community asset registration system to increase access to mortgage backed equity, a telecommunications company, construction companies, construction materials and many others.

We plan to use technology that is only in use. Specifically in our assets registration system we intend to use an open source land registration system developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization called SOLA.  Our other projects will utilise technology transfer strategies to acquire technologies from developed states and localise them.

We have received both support and push back in our efforts to bring people together to pull resources but we are willing to start with those that see the potential in collective action. Our success will show those that doubt our dream that it is possible to achieve success through collective action. Our success will show the doubters that however little you are able to save, if you pool it with other people, you can create a large enterprise that you could not have been able to do alone. 

As we accumulate joint capital,  as we provide affordable credit to workers and as we grow our members, we shall increase our pooled capital. We shall become attractive to funders and donors. We shall be able to sell our goals to the state and convince it to allocate more funding to investment and job creation. As members invest in their individual businesses, they will create jobs and these workers will join us in our efforts. As we get more members and funding, our resources will expand exponentially and we shall be able to invest at an even larger scale.

Ugandan law allows workers to use a percentage of their social security savings to obtain mortgages. We shall leverage this to provide affordable credit to workers. We shall further use our joint investment schemes to attract investments from our social security savings as this is allowed under the law. 

Within year we expect to be having more than 10,000 members. In two years we expect to be having 100,000 members and in five years we hope to have more than 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 members.  We expect to impact more than 50,000 people within the first year. 500,000 within the two years and more than 5,000,000 by the 5th year. We hope to have created more than 1,000,0000 jobs in ten year depending on funding. Our target is more than 5,000,000 jobs in fifteen years. 

In our first year, our goal is to have more than 5,000 saving members and total membership of 10,000 members. We hope to have provided affordable credit to more than 200 members and helped created at least 100 businesses that directly employ more than 200 people and indirectly impact more than 10,000 people. After five years we hope to be creating more than 50,000 jobs per year and supporting more than 10,000 businesses per year. 

Individualism is still very prevalent in Uganda. Funding is likely to increase at a slow pace at first but increase exponentially as our work bears fruits. Social security is politicised in Uganda and therefore we are likely to face some resistance from political leaders. The political climate is volatile given that we have a general election next year. Covid 19 has a disproportionate impact on workers and business owners. We shall thus have challenges attracting funding. 

We shall start small as we mobolise those that are able to and willing to join us. We shall attempt to lobby for investment from our social security savings and we shall initially concentrate on social security backed mortgages and micro credit as the economy rebounds. We shall use collective action to lobby for funding from donors and the state.  We shall take a strict non partisan approach to ensure that we stay clear of politically divisive entanglements. We shall continue to teach and encourage collective action over individualism.

Our organization was born during covid 19 lockdown in Uganda. We are in the process of registration. By the time of reviewing this solution we shall obtained formal registration and legal status as a Non Government Organisation in Uganda. 

We have two hundred members through our whatsapp and facebook platforms. We have been getting about four new members per day in recent weeks. We have not carried out large scale member recruitment due to the lockdown created by covid. 

We have a common goal. We have diverse backgrounds and we are willing to invest in our solution. Many of our members are employees of both the private sector and the state. We have lawyers, engineers, doctors, accountants, mechanics and many others. Our members come from different tribes and different locations in Uganda. 

None. We expect to partner with banks, state agencies and our employers. 

We shall offer Joint investment schemes 

We shall offer affordable credit to workers 

We shall offer legal aid to workers

We shall provide oversight over our social security savings 

We shall provide entrepreneurship support and training to workers. 

Members are required to save a portion of their salary every months. We have not started implementing this due to covid related challenges. Our main source of funding will be member savings. 

We are hoping to win the prize but even if we do not we would like to get valuable connections to funders and donors who can partner with us. We would also benefit from mentorship and expert advice. 

We would appreciate support in fundraising and expert support in building our business model. We would also like to create a strong corporate governance structure to ensure transparency, efficiency and risk management. 

Any one available who has valuable expertise. 

Many refugees are employed in Uganda. We do not discriminate in membership. We welcome their participation in our projects.  We will serve them on the same terms as nationals and aid them in overcoming lack of mortgageable assets. 

Uganda has a large number of working women both in the formal and informal sectors. We serve all workers whether female or male or binary. As long as a person shares our goals of collective action, that person will be welcomed and served with no discrimination.

Our goal is not only to create wealth and investments for workers but to create employment opportunities. We shall use our pooled resources to provide affordable credit to workers and to create joint investments which shall employ not only under workers but also under employed youth. The larger the resources we shall be able to mobolise the the larger the quantity of job opportunities we shall great and the better the quality of those job opportunities.

Our affordable credit will also enable many beneficiaries become self employed. This will free up jobs that these individuals were occupying and allow those seeking advancement to get the desired opportunities.