Ruto says NSSF to hit trillion shillings mark by 2027 » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 30 – Kenya has taken bold steps to encourage a culture of saving among citizens for economic prosperity, President William Ruto has said.

The President explained that when he came to office in 2022, Kenyans were contributing as low as KSh200 to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) monthly. This payment was introduced in 1966. For close to 60 years, NSSF had collected KSh320 billion.

But in 2023, the government introduced a contribution of 6 per cent of an employee’s salary a month with employers paying a similar amount.

Consequently, an extra KSh280 billion has been saved since the measure was introduced in 2023, President Ruto disclosed. By the end of this year, Kenya will have doubled the KSh320 billion saved at NSSF for 60 years.

By 2027, savings at NSSF will hit KSh1 trillion, President Ruto pointed out.

“I promised Kenyans that I would change our savings culture and this is what I am doing because of the bold reforms we have implemented to transform our country,” he said.

Speaking during the installation of the second Chancellor of The Cooperative University of Kenya, Dr Bernard Chitunga, in Karen, Nairobi, President Ruto said savings are key to economic prosperity of any nation.

“Savings are a very important component of any country’s progress,” he said.

He regretted Kenya’s savings is between 10 and 12 per cent as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while in China savings are at 55 per cent of GDP.

Uganda and Tanzania, President Ruto said, have bigger savings as percentages of GDP.