President Museveni on Friday criticised the investment strategy of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), urging it to channel savings into infrastructure projects, as he set out key economic priorities for his new term.

Speaking at Labour Day celebrations in Buikwe District, Museveni said the pension fund was tying up resources in treasury instruments instead of financing productive assets such as toll roads.

NSSF has a lot of money but they invest in non-profitable things like government bonds. Why can't NSSF invest such money in toll roads? The roads would be owned by NSSF, he advised.

Government can continue building its own roads but the rich who don't have time to waste can use toll roads. We've been searching for an investor linking Kampala to Jinja but we haven't succeeded," he added.

Museveni, who will mid-May embark on his next 5-year term had late last month warned against using pension savings to fund recurrent government expenditure.

"NSSF money shouldn't be used for consumption. If it is spent on 'eating, eating, eating, that would be a very serious mistake," he previously explained on April 23 at a high-level event attended by his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, and Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Uganda's fund is projected to grow to Shs50 trillion by 2034/35, up from Shs26 trillion in 2025.

On Friday, Museveni also signalled a policy shift to integrate worker housing into industrial park development, saying government would secure land for low-cost housing near workplaces.

"It may not necessarily be the industrialists but we shall get investors to build low cost houses nearby as part of the industrial park development on the land provided by government. If we don't get private people to do it, I will get National Housing and Construction Company (NHCCL) to start doing it," he explained in Buikwe District