Government to conclude Covid relief cash distribution exercise on Wednesday

The Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja has issued the Wednesday July 13 deadline to the ministry of gender to deliver the sh100,000 to each of the 501,107 intended beneficiaries of the COVID-19 relief cash.

The gender ministry must work hard to deliver COVID-19 relief cash by Wednesday. About 60,000 beneficiaries had received the money by Sunday.

The ministry permanent secretary, Aggrey Kibenge on Monday told reporters at a press conference convened at his office in Kampala that the paid-up beneficiaries were distributed in over 20 cities and municipalities.

These include; Rukungiri, Shema, Ibanda, Kisoro, Arua, Gulu, Kotido, Kitugum, Busia, Hoima, Mbale, Bushenyi-Ishaka, Soroti,Masindi, Kabale, Bugiri, Apach, Entebbe,Mukono, Nansana, Kiira, Makindye, Rubaga, Kampala Central, Nakawa.

However, none of the cities or municipalities had received 100% of their quota, according to the ministry.

“Whichever data comes through, we clear and send to Post Bank to process payments by the telecommunication companies,” Kibenge said. The telecommunication companies include MTN and Aitel.

The target of the ministry by Monday was to enter data of the over 400,000 beneficieries onto the system.

However, by press time Kibenge disclosed that they had successfully entered into the payment system data of 343,143 beneficiaries across the country.

“We are working hard to see to it that we enter more names into the system and be able to have most people paid by the Wednesday deadline given to us by the Prime Minister,” Kibenge disclosed.

According to Kibenge the teams have finally managed to cope with the system and they are now moving first.

He attributed the delayed disbursement of the money in Kampala to the fact that the number of beneficiaries in Kampala was quite big compared to the other areas.

Over 150,000 households are expected to benefit from Kampala alone and government has set aside sh15b to cater for payments in the capital alone.