The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda’s voluntary savings product, Smartlife, has attracted more than 135,000 savers who have collectively saved over Shs180 billion in less than two years since its launch.
NSSF Managing Director Patrick Ayota announced the figures on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, during the NSSF Annual Media Dialogue in Kampala, ahead of the Fund’s Annual Members Meeting scheduled for September 24.
Smartlife is NSSF’s flexible, goal-based voluntary savings product designed to enable people to save for different financial goals outside the mandatory contributions.
Ayota said the growth in Smartlife reflects increasing interest in voluntary savings, with the Fund continuing to expand its reach beyond mandatory social security contributions.
The announcement came as NSSF reported its strongest financial performance on record, with total revenue rising by 85 per cent to Shs6.51 trillion in the Financial Year 2025/26.
Ayota attributed the strong performance to higher returns from the Fund’s investment portfolio, including interest income, dividend earnings and gains from regional equities.
“We recorded our best performance for the Financial Year ended June 2026, driven by growth in interest income, higher dividend earnings and strong gains across regional equity markets,” Ayota said.
Interest income increased to Shs3.49 trillion, while dividend income rose by 55 per cent to Shs369 billion. Gains from regional equities increased by 587 per cent to Shs2.62 trillion.
Real estate income, however, declined by four per cent, contributing Shs16 billion to total revenue.
Member contributions also increased by 13 per cent from Shs2.13 trillion in the 2024/25 financial year to Shs2.42 trillion in 2025/26.
The growth in revenue and member contributions pushed NSSF’s assets under management from Shs26 trillion to Shs32.8 trillion, representing a 26 per cent increase.
Ayota said the growth puts the Fund on a strong path towards its Vision 2035 target of growing assets to Shs80 trillion.
The Fund also reported improved cost management, with the cost of administration declining by 4.5 per cent to 0.84 per cent, while the cost-to-income ratio fell from 7.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent.
“For every shilling we spent, we made over 29 shillings for the member. We are not just preserving, but most importantly, we are creating value for the member,” Ayota said.
NSSF also increased the amount paid to members in benefits from Shs1.32 trillion in 2024/25 to Shs1.549 trillion in 2025/26.
The Fund further reduced the average time taken to process benefit payments from six days to 4.5 days.
The NSSF Annual Members Meeting on September 24 will see minister for finance, Henry Musasizi declaring the interest rate earned by members in the financial year 2025/26.
