Several National Social Security Fund (NSSF) members eligible for mid-term access have failed to submit applications online, citing system glitches and individual errors.
A number of Fund members, according to their testimonies, spent hours fidgeting on the computer before abandoning the online attempt and dashing to the nearest NSSF office to register for mid-term benefit in person.
Hundreds of savers began applying for 20 percent of their accrued benefits last Monday after Gender and Labour minister Betty Amongi issued regulations to operationalise Section 20A of the NSSF (Amendment) Act, 2021 on mid-term access.

Under the law and statutory instrument, Persons with Disability are entitled to withdraw up to 50 percent of their benefits, if they are aged 45 years and have remitted contributions to the Fund for 120 months.
Also, other claimants must fulfil similar criteria to qualify.
In interviews with would-be beneficiaries since the start of the registration on Monday, members complained of online registration system glitches and data matching headaches.
Mr Dan Mwesigye, a logistics officer at Bollore Logistics, said he tried to apply online two days ago, but he got stuck at the level of inserting his name and date of birth.

“I couldn’t go beyond this level because I kept receiving a message saying I was not eligible. I decided to go and apply from Kololo Ceremonial Grounds and I succeeded,” he said. 
The ceremonial grounds is the main processing centre for claimants in Kampala Metropolitan area who apply physically while members upcountry can register at any of NSSF’s 20 offices and sub-offices in main towns and cities.
Mr Michael Lugeda, a former employee of the Ministry of Sports and Education, said he tried to apply online on Monday but failed.
He got stuck at the point of inputting his date of birth because the date of birth, which appeared on the bank statement, was different from what was in his NSSF account.

In a media dialogue on Monday, NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba disclosed that eligible members, who have mismatched data or information, will automatically be rejected by the customised digital registration system.
He also said those who make the claims online, if successful, do not have the option of splitting their claim for the 20 percent accrued benefits as do those who register in person.

Mr Lugeda planned to put his hand on the mid-term cash as soon as possible, but his failure to register timely presents the possibility that the money he intended to invest in business might be a long wait away.
Mr Mike Mukile, a former employee of Blue Pearl, said he filled all the information, but after submitting the application, he received a message notifying him that the information that he submitted did not correspond with details in NSSF system.
“I tried three times, but still failed. I don’t know whether it was due to congestion online. When I tried [the physical registration at] Kololo Ceremonial Grounds, I succeeded,” he said, beaming with satisfaction and pride.

The Fund announced that it will make the first disbursements to early mid-term claimants on March 17 and afterwards wire Shs50b every Thursday. It expects to wire a total Shs1 trillion by this year’s end, raising concern that the excess liquidity, if not mopped up by Bank of Uganda, could exacerbate inflation currently noticeable and growing due to rising food and commodity prices.
In an interview with this paper yesterday, 47-year-old Charles Katagira, a former employee of Educate Uganda, said after filling in his date of birth online, the system notified him that he was ineligible, yet he had earlier received a short text message (SMS) alert on his phone from NSSF that he qualified for mid-term benefits.

Need for sensitisation
He said the management of the Fund needed to sensitise beneficiaries ahead of rolling out the application process.
Ms Barbra Arimi, the NSSF’s head of marketing and communications, on Tuesday admitted that they had received complaints from some savers struggling to apply for their cash online.

While advising that online application is convenient, and encouraging those experiencing no trouble to embrace it, Ms Arimi asked those unsuccessful to go and register in person at the Fund office nearest to them.
“Yes, we have received some complaints about online application, but more than 300 applications came in through the same channel on day one (Monday). Those with issues should go to the nearest NSSF branch for help,”’ she said.
Ms Arimi advised applicants to provide authentic documents including National ID, NSSF card, bank statement and mobile money phone numbers to ease registration and benefit access.

Mr Alfred Ochola, an employee of one of the big media companies in Kampala, said he tried to apply online but could not progress beyond date of birth entry. The options in the system stopped at 1974, yet he was born before that.
“I don’t know whether it was done intentionally. I even tried to use IT people in office, but failed,” he said.
Mr Michael Okinyom, 51, said his online application stalled when he tried to insert his age.

“The system kept sending a message that ‘you do not qualify’. I went to register manually at Kololo [in Kampala] and succeeded. They should have published the names of eligible people in the newspapers so as not to bounce those who lacked the requirements for mid-term access,” he said.
A government employee, who asked not to be named for unexplained reasons, said during the process of applying online, he received notification that the system had auto-generated a code on his email that he should use to authenticate the application, but when he checked all his email addresses, he found nothing. 

He tried to type in his email address, but the system rejected it as “invalid”. The official decided to drive to Kololo where his problem was resolved.
 Isaac, another saver who preferred not to be identified in this story by the first name, said he was unable to progress beyond registering his name and date of birth. “I abandoned the process of applying online at this level because whenever I could fill in the form, it would generate feedback that “‘there was an error’. They were also asking for documents such as a bank statement, which I could not easily upload [online],” he said.

A one David said he succeeded to register online, but after overcoming multiple hurdles.
“When I started, the process was okay until when I reached where I had to choose from the options of how I intended to use the money. There were two options; health, and constructions. I wanted to select health, but I knew I didn’t have medical forms to back it up, and I selected construction and proceeded,” he said.
It was unclear if David was applying for the 20 percent mid-tern cash or regular full pay upon a member reaching 50, if unemployed, or 55 if employed. 
 
Speaking to journalists at Kololo on Tuesday, Mr Byarugaba said half of the 6,000 applications they had received had already been processed. “A lot of applications are coming in also online. By the time I last checked, more than 700 applications had been successful. The application process is good,” he said.
The Fund, he said, had turned away tens of members who turned up to claim mid-term benefits yet they were not qualified.

Debate over who is eligible for mid-term access gained traction after two members of the Fund’s board --- ex-workers’ MP Sam Lyomoki and Hassan Lwabayi --- broke ranks to argue that the qualification of members based on contributions for 120 months constituted a “misinterpretation of the law”.
To them, any person whose account with NSSF is a decade-old should be able to withdraw part of their benefits.
However, both the Attorney General and Fund management dismissed the argument as baseless because Section 20A(4) provides that a person eligible for mid-term access must have contributed, not been a member, for 10 years.  
As a result of the tighter eligibility criteria, many members were bounced, among them 47-year-old Jaryekonga Tombaya, a resident of Andikandi Village in Atego sub-country, Nebbi District.

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