NAIROBI, Kenya
The National Social Security Fund has withdrawn the use of the age-old fingerprint registration system following the integration of a high-tech system that is set to leave nearly 500 employees redundant. The manual system synonymous with NSSF has now been retired in favour of modern registration systems with a capacity to save the fund more than Sh1.6billion in administrative costs.
Managing Trustee Tom Odongo says the fund has been strategically modernizing its ICT infrastructure to facilitate quality and efficient service delivery to its members against global benchmarks. The integration of new generation ICT systems has also facilitated the rollout of a Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme (VERS) allowing long serving members of staff to exit the organisation under an attractive package.
Already, more than 300 members of staff have exited NSSF under the VERS programme with a further 200 applications now under consideration. While reacting to recent misleading media reports, Odongo denied that the fund had sacked 500 members of staff, clarifying that the on-going early retirement programme is purely voluntary. As part of the ICT integration project, NSSF has successfully completed a major Information technology systems upgrade project covering the installation of a Tier II data centre to provide a data processing hub for the fund. The new data centre is expected to enhance NSSF’s service delivery capacity through systems and process automation.
Already, NSSF has also deployed two core ICT systems and a Tier II Data Centre to support its business. The two recently integrated systems include a Core Social Security and Pension Administration system (SSPAS) based on Oracle technologies and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system based on SAP solutions commissioned late last year. With the withdrawal of its fingerprints registration and recognition system, NSSF has up scaled its members’ identification method to the Ministry of Immigration linked Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS) solution.
NSSF will also be deploying a number of standard business automation applications covering such key areas such as Unified Communications, Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS), Workplace Automation, Business Intelligence and Data warehousing among others.
“Our commitment to modernise NSSF’s ICT systems is strategically inclined at facilitation crucial organisational reforms to enable this fund efficiently serve its members as we anticipate doubling our current membership numbers to 2.8 million in the coming year,” Odongo explained. “NSSF is now firmly set on an organisational transformation path that will enable the fund to meet its service delivery promises particularly an undertaking to process our members benefits in less than five days.”
With the integration and modernisation of the funds ICT infrastructure, NSSF is systematically, making a historical shift from the inefficient NSSF of yesteryear to a modern Social Security fund, which provides value to its members through centralised modern IT systems. Coming hot on the heels of the fund’s recent ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), NSSF has been actively stepping up its ICT infrastructure.
Last December, NSSF activated a new Kshs 300 million SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to facilitate real time management across its core business functions. The new SAP ERP platform while providing an overall picture on the Fund’s performance, Odongo said will significantly help in raising integrity and plugging organizational leakages.
The new system he added will also play a key role in helping cut the Fund’s administrative costs as it gears up for its corporate conversion into a Social Security (Pension) or (social insurance) Scheme. Among other benefits, the new SAP ERP system will allow NSSF to track its costs and monitor operations to produce real time financial statements that can be, presented to government, banks or other stakeholders.
The system will also ensure that budget allocations are strictly maintained and business transactions managed according to budget. Within the human resource framework, NSSF staff will enjoy a range of benefits including online access to their payslips that now reduces the need to print out such documents for the 1600 workforce strong fund. Incorporating a Real Estate Management feature, the new ERP system also provides NSSF with a platform to manage all its Real estate property including investment property by tracking rented office space as well as houses under the Tenant Purchase Scheme.
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