On Thursday National Social Security Fund (NSSF) released
its financial results for the year that ended in June.
As a saver with the fund for more than 20 years, this is an
event I look forward to every year.
NSSF has continued on its winning ways. The Fund continues
to grow from strength to strength and once again seemed to shrug off the
effects of the covid-19 pandemic to register more growth.
Comprehensive income jumped 25 percent to sh1.84trillion
from sh1.47trillion the previous year. This improved performance came despite a
drop in interest rate in fixed income products, which dominate NSSF’s
portfolio. Income grew in all the asset classes, notably more than doubling in
real estate portfolio to sh23.5b in 2020/21 from sh11.1b on the back of sales
of housing units at their development in Mbuya where a three-bedroom unit were
going for sh650m.
The seemingly contradiction is explained by the fact that
member contributions grew eight percent to sh1.37trillion from sh1.27trillion
in 2019/20.
All this and more adds up to the continued growth of the
fund’s assets which now stand at sh15.5trillion a 17 percent increase from the
previous year’s sh13.3trillion.
All these numbers are a bit intimidating if not mindboggling
but NSSF’s history in growing the fund and ensuring good returns, holds powerful
lessons for our own personal financial health.
Not in order of importance these are the lessons from NSSF
1.
Start where you are
As reported above the size of NSSF’s asset base is
sh15.5trillion. interestingly about ten years ago this figure was
sh1.6trillion, if you had said that time that the fund would have grown almost tenfold
by this time people would have laughed you out of town. The lesson here is to
start where we are with what we have. We should not be discouraged that our
ambitions are big but our income is small, we should start. The trick is to be
consistent, which consistency will generate a momentum that will even shock
you.
2.
The two ways to spend money
There are only two ways to spend money – eating/consuming it
and investing it. The richer among us have slanted their spending towards
investment and away from consumption. Investing comes with the promise of more
income in the future – you are making your money work for you, while
consumption holds no promise of future income. NSSF continues to control its
consumption, this year the cost of administration was recorded as a 1.06
percent of assets from 1.19 percent the previous year. This figure has been falling annually for the
last decade or so, which means NSSF spending is shifting consistently towards
investment – 98.04 percent and away from consumption – salaries, stationary,
fuel, rent etc.
3.
The eighth wonder of the world
Renown physicist Albert Einstein said that compound interest
is the eighth wonder of the world. Compounding applies to anything that builds
on previous progress, but in this case we are talking about the consistent
profits the fund makes which it then reinvests. As mentioned earlier the fund
has grown tenfold over the last decade which comes to an annual compounded
growth of about 25 percent. Simply put if you took 10 shillings and grew it by
25 percent annually and retained the profit and grew the initial principal plus
profit another 25 percent year after year for ten years it would become 100
shillings. Similarly, sh1,000 would become sh10,000; sh10,000 would become
sh100,000; a million would be come sh10m and sh10m would become sh100m and so
on and so forth. It helps that the savers are contributing about sh125b a month
but most of the gains come from interest on interest.
For compound interest to work the key ingredient is time.
Good returns are ideal but more importantly time.
Assuming NSSF only managed half the growth rate it has over
the last ten years it would grow to about sh50trillion by 2031 which would be
about half the GDP of Uganda at current prices.
4.
If you want to go far
They say if you want to travel fast go alone, but if you want
to travel far go with someone. The biggest achievement of NSSF is it has created
a vehicle for the aggregation of our savings. People’s contributions range from
a few thousand shillings to a few millions of shillings on the higher end. Each
of the members working individually would not be able to achieve what NSSF has
achieved for them. By aggregating all our resources NSSF has leveraged the
larger economies of scale to improve our bargaining power in the market. NSSF
can get better rates and is privy to the juiciest deals.
In our own lives it would be a good idea to mirror this by
saving and investing in groups to go far.
5.
We underestimate what we can achieve in ten years
Someone once said that we overestimate what we can achieve
in a year and underestimate what we achieve in ten years. Thanks to the history
of our country our default mode seems to be that we want improvements now, we
are not wired to wait for a year or five, 10 or 20 to reap the fruits of our
labour. As a result, we fail to take advantage of the exponential gains that come
with long term endevour.
But there is another benefit of having a long term
perspective. You do not get distracted by the squirrels that cross your path
when you are on the hunt for the elephant.
NSSF in 2015 set themselves the goal to be a sh20trillion
fund. Despite the covid pandemic they are set to hit, even exceed that target.
Without a strategy NSSF emboldened by its mounting war chest would be seduced
by every deal that crosses their part and very well killing their chance of
good returns.
