Mukono school rehabilitation boosted with over sh100m as NSSF kicks off CSR week

MUKONO - The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has commissioned its corporate social responsibility week with donation of sh112m to Kiyunga Islamic Primary School at Kiyunga village in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district.

The week dubbed '40 Good Deeds’ was organised to commemorate the fund’s 40 years of existence since inception by an Act of Parliament  in December 1985.

During the week, all the 22 NSSF branches countrywide will carry out community assistance engagements in the education, health and youth support sectors.

Outlining development scored since inception, NSSF acting managing director Gerard Paul Kasaato on December 9, 2025, said their services are always becoming more demand driven, with clients’ expectations rising.

“Our clients have graduated from the past adamancy by keeping us on tenterhooks to explain any new development, which has in turn pushed us to work for fuller customer expectations,” he said.

Kasaato disclosed that they are soon launching a new strategy for the next 10 years, envisaging more than double the existing assets, and added that by 2035, they project coverage of more than 50% of all working people in the country, and 95% of staff and customer satisfaction.

According to the MD, the donation is part of the money which was collected recently from the NSSF Kampala Seven hills marathon.

Earlier, Mukono Resident District Commissioner Hajat Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka said private schools, which she said outnumber government-aided schools, have done a commendable job in contributing to NSSF which she pointed out has resulted into the immediate assistance to Kiyunga Islamic Primary School, a community and government aided school.

Ndisaba underscored the great job done by the fund in convincing payers to save with them because she observed, collecting money from people is a hurdle calling for tactics and employing a down-to-earth attitude to convince the payers.

She watered down claims by unnamed people whom she said allege that NSSF collects money for Museveni, and clarified that after paying claimants, the reserve is what is brought Back in form of assistance like the immediate one to Kiyunga Islamic School.

She, however, noted that the state of the building which is intended to be renovated is so sorry and was already condoned by the district engineer.

She advised that the donated money should be used to start a foundation of a new building on which the district will mobilize funds to complete later.

The only school staff quarters in place are also in a poor state. (Credit: Henry Nsubuga)

Timely assistance

In his appreciation note, the headteacher, Yusuf Kalibbala said the assistance is timely as it comes at a time when the school structures are becoming desolate and badly in need of refurbishment, all this at a time when, Kalibbala noted, government has a lot of commitments to meet other UPE requirements.

He decried the very high learner:teacher ratio, with the school population of 927 pupils being attended to by 12 teachers on pay roll and 7 support staff; he said the number of teachers is far too low.

“My teachers are overwhelmed, imagine, in Primary Three, it has 147 pupils who are all seated in one room,” he noted.

Mukono District Education Officer Rashid Kikomeko hailed the assistance from the NSSF to Kiyunga school, noting that annually, government releases only sh300m-400m as capital development fund for the whole distrist, which he said is too small for the over 200 primary and secondary schools in the district.

Kikomeko noted that following the COVID-19 period, many schools were discovered to have an acute shortage of toilet facilities, forcing the district to step up latrine construction against all financial odds.

“The standard requirement for any school is at least three units, one for boys, one for girls and one for teachers; against this background, were we constructed over 30 latrine stances, which means that the sh400m release from the centre is a drop in the ocean,” Kikomeko noted.

The DEO added that the NSSF intervention is a timely one, given that the headteacher has written several applying for such assistance.