Proposal to turn NSSF savings into pension is suspect

EDITOR: I have been following discussions on the proposal to turn workers' savings in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) into a pension scheme. I cannot stop asking whoever is behind this irrational proposal a number of questions.

Most of us who save with NSSF have big ambitions of investing and living a good life but the bogus proposal would deny us the opportunity to acquire mortgages and low interest loans to invest while NSSF uses our savings as collateral!

Is it a scheme to impoverish every Ugandan? It is claimed that many people misuse their savings given to them at retirement. Who is to decide how people should use their own money?

How often has the Government asked people for their monthly income to invest it for them or ration it for their spending?

What makes the Government think a person who has worked for all those years lacks the wisdom to manage their own savings? What yardstick is used to conclude that some people have misused their savings? And why should the Government be bothered?

If the Government has failed to manage the pension scheme for civil servants, what moral authority does it have to even utter a word about workers' savings in NSSF? The Government should convince us that it is not after promoting wretchedness through this myopic scheme.

D. Agaba
Kampala