The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has spent Shs 2.6 billion to pay 183 employees who were dismissed for having fake certificates.

This was explained here in the city by the Director General of NSSF, Masha Mshomba when explaining the implementation of various activities of the fund and the direction of the executives in the financial year 2022/23.

He said that in the half of the financial year that ended in December 2022, the Fund paid Shs 350.7 billion in benefits to about 80,339 members, retirees and other beneficiaries.

"These payments include Sh2.6 billion paid to 183 employees who were dismissed for lack of valid certificates."

Recently, President Samia Suluhu Hassan agreed to employees who were dismissed from work due to fake certificates to be paid for the contributions they contributed during their employment with money deducted from their salaries only.

Elaborating further, Mshomba said NSSF still continues to pay their employees but he does not expect the number to increase further due to the fund having a small number of public servants who were contributing to the fund.

Mshomba said that in the fiscal year ending June 2023, the Fund expects to pay benefits worth Shs 769.3 billion, which is an increase of 17 percent compared to Shs 659.8 billion paid in the fiscal year ending June 2022.

"In this area of ​​benefits, I would like to thank President Samia again for agreeing to the union's request to come up with a new calculator for the benefits of our retirees that came into effect in July 2022."

Due to the change in the calculator, now pensioners receive an initial lump sum of 33 percent compared to the 25 percent that NSSF pensioners used to get.

"The important thing here is that this calculator takes into account the sustainability of our social security funds."

In addition, Mshomba said that in the half of the financial year that ended in December 2022, the Fund collected contributions of Shs 807.6 billion equal to 1 percent above the collection target for that period.

He said that in the financial year ending June 2023, the Fund expects to collect contributions of Sh 1.6 trillion which is an increase of 14 percent compared to the contributions of Sh 1.4 trillion collected by the Fund in the financial year ending in June 2022.

Mshomba also said that the Fund registered 123,340 new members and the number of contributing members in the Fund reached 1,109,997 members.

He also said that in half a year, the Fund collected Shs 165.7 billion from investment income and the Fund's investments.

In the fiscal year ending in June 2023, the value of the Fund's investments is expected to grow to Shs 6.3 trillion, which is an increase of 17 percent from Shs 5.4 trillion.