‘…Byarugaba Ayota looked at Uganda the way a farmer looks at his garden…he tended it, watered it, enriched it with fertiliser and let others enjoy its fruits’… This is Mzee BSN at his witty self.
Tickled by the latest skit from NSSF, namely the Seven-Hills run in aid of disadvantaged pupils in Kampala’s public schools. An annual ritual of sorts. And Mzee says NSSF must rise above this. Rise above rituals and symbolism and become the vanguard of Uganda’s transformation into prosperity for posterity.
As a country, we are a late late-developer, so we have countless success stories across time and space to benchmark and eliminate poverty from ourselves. Notable among the nationalist vanguards of transformation to prosperity is Jean-Baptiste Colbert, France’s Finance Minister during the reign of Louis XIV. This is the man whose story Mzee paraphrased as we watched the closing ceremony of the NSSF Seven-Hills run. Colbert’s policies, strategies and initiatives have since become an ideology, and a subject of academic research, studied and benchmarked in national development.
Colbertism is today synonymous with nationalism and a developmental state trajectory. And Mzee argues this is what the leadership keeping Uganda’s national citizens’ piggy-bank should emulate. Whereas events like the Seven-Hills run are typical marketing and brand visibility strategies clothed as corporate social responsibility, NSSF by its nature needs not this type of marketing and visibility. Actually, it needs no marketing at all.
All Ugandans are by law, both the available and accessible market for NSSF. Its revenue streams are a mandatory obligation on all Ugandan employers and employees, and by extension all Ugandans. It is guaranteed. The Ugandan Government, through the NSSF Act, is the chief marketing officer, business development manager, brand manager, key account manager, corporate affairs manager, customer relationship manager… for NSSF. Fait accompli.
The leadership at NSSF has only one task: build on this statutorily-guaranteed strength and widen the reach of the revenue stream. To every Ugandan. Time to drop ‘the informality nature of our economy’ academic argument. Within this ‘informal sector’ lies the power of numbers, which trade marketing exploits to the maximum: small unit-revenue from multitudes. Add this to high unit- revenue from the few in ‘the formal sector’ and our national piggy-bank overflows.
Rational and appreciative, Ugandans will see reason to save with NSSF. Let’s start with the carrot, Mzee argues. The carrot to entice the power of numbers. NSSF, partner with UDC, the investment arm of government. Dust the Agricultural Zoning Plan 2005. Invest into agro-industrial value chains in each region as zoned, and Ugandans will rationally respond. ‘Create demand…it will generate its own supply’ Mzee quotes a Ugandan technocrat.
With planned and predictable production, we can confidently seek export markets for Ugandan foods and other agro-industrial products. And we the citizens in our multitudes, earning from the value chains, will boost NSSF revenue streams. Leverage legislation. Lobby parliament to enact the Counterfeits Bill, widened in definition to allow for the banning of used textiles, leather products and all manner of counterfeits. Invest into industries to meet the created demand.
‘The current investment in intelligent buildings and glamorous residential neighbourhoods risks creating an eGoli in Uganda…,’ Mzee cautions, in reference to Johannesburg, South Africa’s City of Gold, with its enclave of prosperity sandwiched by stinking poverty in sprawling slums, and the attendant social implications. Planned and intended, as the country’s history tells us.
Uganda has not had this intended strange dark phase in her evolution. We thus must avoid a development path that yields this dichotomy. And NSSF leadership holds our Colbertism.
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‘Uganda’s Local Govt’s have a Weak Local Revenue Base’…Lame Excuse
