Over 21,000 people to get Covid-19 cash tomorrow

A total of 21,480 vulnerable people from cities and municipalities will tomorrow receive Shs100,000 each as the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development rolls out the Covid-19 cash relief. 
The money will be sent via mobile phone. 
Gender minister Betty Amongi told journalists in Kampala yesterday, that money will be sent to the vulnerable families after uploading data of at least half of the targeted beneficiaries (250,553). 

The planned government cash release, however, covers only 4.2 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries. Data of 479,627 (95.8 per cent) beneficiaries is yet to be verified and uploaded on the system for payment. 
“We held a meeting with Kampala town clerks yesterday [Monday] and they informed us that they were processing their data,” Ms Amongi said.

She added: “The basis of payment is the availability of data supposed to be received from cities and municipalities. As of today (Tuesday) 2pm, 21,480 names had been uploaded on the system.” 
The Covid-19 cash release will come exactly 21 days after the President imposed a 42-day lockdown to curb the spread of a pandemic that has so far killed more than 1,000 people.
About three weeks ago, the government promised to send cash relief to a total of 501,107 vulnerable people from selected urban areas.

Ms Amongi said Gulu City and Kira Municipality had uploaded more names of beneficiaries as of yesterday.
The minister also revealed that Kampala City had not yet uploaded their lists of beneficiaries by yesterday due to a few technical hitches encountered so far. 
Before the press conference, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Aggrey Kibenge, told Daily Monitor that data for 13,000 people from various cities and municipalities had been loaded at 10am yesterday.    These include Gulu City, Njeru, Apac, Kapchorwa, Kira, Kotido, Kumi, Mubende and Ntugumo. 

The process
Mr Kibenge explained that the funds were going to be deposited from the Bank of Uganda to Post Bank before the planned beneficiaries get their money. Post Bank is expected to disburse the money to the cleared beneficiaries’ mobile phones.  
He said the system will only automatically clear those whose National Identification Numbers (NINs) match with their names and mobile phones and Post Bank will send the money directly. 

Beneficiaries whose names and mobile phones accounts do not match with their NIN will access the funds from Post Bank using their national IDs. Those without IDS have been advised to go to National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and get NINs. Registration process takes at least one week. 

Ms Amongi yesterday said all municipalities and cities are expected to upload the names of their beneficiaries by tomorrow.  “In case by Thursday your data is not 100 per cent loaded in the system, we will guide you based on the number left. We shall give you a few days to finalise the balance,” Ms Amongi said.
 ICT Minister Chris Baryomunsi yesterday asked landlords not to evict their tenants during this lockdown, saying the Shs100,000 they are supposed to receive is supposed to cater for food and not for rent.
 

Kampala glitches
Mr Kibenge faulted Kampala District officers for using the list of vulnerable people, who received food last year, for this year’s programme.
“When we gave them lists from last year’s exercise, their responsibility was to cross check and update the list. They just went ahead and displayed the list we gave to them and people thought those were the beneficiaries,” Mr Kibenge said.
 Mr Kibenge said this has since been rectified.