12-07-2024
Scores of Luanshya residents trooped to Kawama Combined School to witness the rolling out of the drought response emergency cash transfer which is aimed at cushioning the impact of the droughts.
Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Augustine Kasongo who graced the occasion noted that Luanshya District has a caseload of 11,467 people who have been identified to be vulnerable and benefit from the social cash transfer scheme, out of those, 10,101 have been put on the drought response emergency cash transfer scheme.
In his speech, Mr Kasongo highlighted that all beneficiaries of the drought response emergency cash transfer will have an increase value of K200, culminating into bimonthly payments of K1000 for each beneficiary from the K800 payment under the social cash transfer scheme while the disabled will have a transfer value of K800 Kwacha.
“The Social Cash transfer program is a dimension of social assistance that the government through the department of social welfare is implementing whose overall goal is to reduce extreme poverty and intergrational transfer of poverty through regular bimonthly payments to different identified households” he said
“May I inform you that Luanshya District has a current caseload of 11,467 of those on the regular social cash transfer and 10,101 on the rapid response emergency cash transfer. The transfer value for all our beneficiaries has increased by K200 per month, this implies that the disabled will now be getting a transfer value of K800 per month and K1,200 bimonthly” he added.
The permanent Secretary also revealed that government is transitioning from physical payments to electronic payment as part of the digitization process, he noted that Kitwe and Namwala districts were used as pilot projects and successes were recorded, adding that so far, 6,975 people are receiving the funds electrically.
Mr Kasongo acknowledged the impact of the dry spells during the 2023/2024 farming season that have affected 84 districts of the country and an approximate 6 million people who are at direct risk of economic deprivation. He added that the drought response emergency cash transfer scheme which will run for 12 months is an initiative by the government to enable eligible households access the funds to mitigate direct impact of the droughts.
“The mode of payment has been through direct cash payment using the pay-point managers and now the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services is transitioning into electronic payment system as per government preference to go digital” he stated
