The Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development has hopes high that the Electronic Payment system will help improve service delivery in Social cash transfer programme.
Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Gender, Children and Community development said this on Friday in Nkhotakota during launch of E-Payment system, a mobile Money transaction method that will be used to pay beneficiaries of the Programme.
Speaking during the event, Kaliati said the E-Payment system is expected to improve service delivery in the Programme as beneficiaries will no longer queue to get their Cash as it was the case in the past.
“We were also spending a lot of money for our officers to travel to the field to meet the beneficiaries. We are talking about the administrative costs, human resource costs and also security for the money, now with the E-Payment we have saved on all these expenses.” Said Kaliati.
According to Kaliati, it is government’s wish to get the E-Payment system to other districts, saying the method has proven to be easier, faster and cheaper than the manual payment.
Hagara Kalota (33), is from Kombo Village T/A Malengachanzi in Nkhotakota and is one of the beneficiaries of the social cash transfer.
She said “we were facing challenges during the manual cash transfer, we were queuing from morning to night just to receive the money but now, the money is sent into the phones we received and we just walk to a mobile Money Agent to withdraw. This is good development as now we will have more time to attend to other businesses unlike in the past when we could dedicate the whole day to get the Cash.”
On his part, Maleck Kaziputa TNM’s Mobile money Agent Manager said the E-Payment system has been protected from Mobile money fraudsters.
National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) is one of the implementers of the Programme. Stanley Chuthi Acting Director of infrastructure and economic development at NLGFC expressed hope that the E-Payment System will be extended to other districts in the soonest time possible.
During the event, Traditional Chief Kalimanjira called on government to review the Programme so that the elderly and people with disabilities are also included as beneficiaries.
“Nkhotakota District has over 400,000 people but only 7,000 are benefiting from the Programme, please increase the number of beneficiaries. Would you also increase the amount considering the rising cost of living.” Pleaded T/A Kalimanjira.
“Be assured, your concerns will be looked into,’’ replied Kaliati.
Social cash transfer programme in Nkhotakota started in 2018 and has over 7,000 beneficiaries.
The Government of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme is unconditional transfer targeted to ultra-poor and labor-constrained households. The families of these households receive a monthly cash transfer to help them meet their daily basic needs.
In Nkhotakota the Programme is being implemented with funding from the World Bank.
