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Mak gives staff 13% interest on pension savings
Makerere staff at a meeting in the Main Building at the university in 2019. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- The vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, assured the staff of availability of the money within a week to staff who retire.
Makerere University staff saving with the University Retirement Benefit Scheme (MURBS) are to be paid 13.3 per cent interest on their savings in the last financial year.
The university’s pension fund’s board announced the windfall during the 11th MURBS annual meeting on the Thursday at Makerere.
The board chairperson, Dr Godwin Kakuba, said the scheme made a return of Shs27.9 billion from fixed income assets and Shs2.1b from equities.
He also said the net fund grew by Shs46b to Shs255b.
“The investment performance the scheme attained exceeded the total contributions that the scheme received during the reporting year,” Dr Kakuba said.
“In light of the disclosures above, the board of trustees hereby confirms the award of an interest rate of 13.3 percent,” Dr Kakuba said.
The MURBS annual report shows that 19 per cent of the staff have benefits ranging from Shs150m to Shs200m, with another 7 per cent of them with benefits of between Shs200m and Shs350m while the majority have less than Shs50m.
Dr Kakuba said the highest benefits holder has Shs370m savings, meaning the saver will earn Shs49.2m more this financial year while those with at least Shs50m savings will get Shs6.6m more, calculated on the announced interest rate.
The report says the Fund as of June had a total of 5,983 members, with 2,077 of them active and another 3,906 deferred, compared to 3,777 members in 2019, with 2,062 of them active.
Since inception in 2010, MURBS had been engaged in battles with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which fought hard to retain the same staff on its scheme.
In 2018, NSSF sued Makerere University over non-remittance of monthly staff social security contributions.
The Fund argued then that MURBS — to which the university made the mandatory 15 per cent remittance for the vast bulk of its staff — was illegal.
Whereas the case is still in court, the Finance ministry officials approved MURBS as a superannuation scheme this year in June.
Daily Monitor this month broke a story of the university withdrawing 910 staff from the NSSF after approval by the Finance ministry.
The Chairman of the Finance Committee of Council, Mr Bruce Kabasa, during the annual meeting asked the university to start remitting the staff benefits to MURBS and on time.
“After the approval of our scheme, the Fund is going to get more resources and experience an increase in the number of members because all the staff who have been saving with NSFF will now start saving with you, ”Mr Kabasa said.
He also said staff who have been saving with NSSF have been given the liberty to withdraw their money from NSSF to MURBS.
The vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, assured the staff of availability of the money within a week to staff who retire.
