The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has won the Corporate Governance Awards for outstanding practices in the category of Public Sector Governance, ahead of 6 public institutions that participated in the awards.
The inaugural awards which were organized by the Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda (ICGU), took place on 17 th May at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
The awards are intended to shine a beacon of light on companies that uphold the best practices in corporate governance. Even though most companies have governance structures in place, including board of directors, many of them don’t provide effective governance over their required mandates.
The Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, therefore, launched the awards to recognise organizations with outstanding achievements in the governance, risk and compliance requirements. “It is one thing to have the systems and structures in place but another to comply and adhere to these systems for the overall effective and efficient running of the organisation,” said Christine K. Kawooya the CEO of The Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda.
NSSF Deputy Managing Director, Patrick Ayota, who received the award on behalf of the Fund said, “Over the last seven years, we have been on a transformation journey to make the Fund a reputable organization with working systems, processes and controls.”
Ayota explained that the growth of the Fund to UGX9 trillion today is a testament that our governance structures and strategies are on the right track. “We are proud that our hard work has been recognised and it is not surprising therefore, that member confidence has increased significantly and the Fund now is regarded as one of the best run, effective & largest Pension Fund in the region,” he concluded.
The judging criteria was based on effective corporate governance processes, best corporate social responsibility practices, transparency in organization operations and financial and operation performance resulting from effective strategy and execution.
The National Social Security has continued to be recognised both locally and globally for various innovations and implementation of best practices in various categories. Last year, NSSF won the Africa Pension Fund Infrastructure Investment Initiative of the Year Award and two International Social Security Association (ISSA) Good Practice Awards for the Friends with Benefits initiative and the E-collections platform.
The Fund was also recognized for good corporate governance in the Financial Reporting (FiRe) Awards in 2015 and 2016.