NSSF MD, Patrick Ayota
Patrick Michael Ayota, Managing Director at NSSF
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has reiterated its plan to raise over UGX360Bn annually from boda bodas in its voluntary saving scheme.
NSSF hopes to register over 1million boda boda riders, with each saving at least UGX1000 daily and UGX1Bn per month.
Patrick Michael Ayota, Managing Director at NSSF, made the remarks while addressing MPs during the Induction Seminar for the 12th Parliament, at Commonwealth Speke Resort Munyonyo, on 3rd July 2026.
“Many of us look at Boda Bodas and in our minds, they are the most erratic, most informal, most indisciplined characters we have in the society. What we found out was very interesting; most of the Boda boda riders belong to a stage, that stage has a president, has a treasurer, has a secretary. They have a copy of their national ID on that stage, they have their phone number, sometimes they even have the LC1 letters on that stage,” Ayota said.
He said during one of the meetings held with the leaders of the boda boda riders, the two groups broke down how most of the boda boda riders use their money when they leave the house in the morning; NSSF learnt that when a boda boda rider leaves home in the morning, they spend about UGX13,000 to UGX14,000 daily on meals, thus prompting the Fund officials to ask the leaders of the boda boda associations to sensitize their members on the need to sacrifice at least UGX1000 on the money spent on meals as savings.
“.. We have 2.5 million boda bodas in the country, to have 1 million Boda bodas save UGX1Million, a day, that is UGX1Bn a month, that is UGX360Bn a year which can help us grow this economy as we look at it. The one thing that we want to do is maximise contributions, bring as many people as we can in here,” he said.
According to NSSF, between November 2024 and July 2026, 95,000 individuals signed up for voluntary savings and these have so far saved UGX195Bn.
“…Ugandans save. It’s just that we need to give them a place to save wealth. We save in land, we save in cows, we save in goats, we save in chicken. But what you want is to save in money because it helps you do the things that you want,” he said.
NSSF defended its proposal to intensify efforts towards growing numbers of savers revealing that currently, only 13% (950,000) working Ugandans are savings with the Fund out of the 3.5million yet this comes at the time when life expectancy has grown, enabling Ugandans to live longer, thus creating the need for Uganda to increase that percentage to at least 50% and if this is done, the Fund will be able to grow from the UGX26Trn Fund to UGX80Trn Fund by 2035.
