The government of Uganda has identified the vulnerable groups which will benefit from the the Covid-19 relief fund.
Early this month, the National Covid-19 task force team led by the Prime Minister resolved to extend financial aid instead of food to the vulnerable groups that are affected by the second lockdown.
“We have decided that any support that will be provided to the persons most affected by the lockdown will be through cash tokens and not physical food distribution.Money will be sent using mobile money and the voucher system,”Nabbanja told the media after a meeting with fellow Covid-19 taskforce members.
During the first lockdown in March 2020, government provided vulnerable Ugandans with maize flour and beans. Unfortunately majority of the people never received the food relief.
While announcing the second lockdown to contain the spread of the pandemic in the East African country on Friday, President Yoweri Museveni ordered the Office of the Prime Minister to work with the National Taskforce on Covid-19 to come up with means on how Ugandans who will be affected by the 42 days would be catered for.
And in a 28th June meeting, cabinet approved the proposal by the taskforce to transfer cash to vulnerable persons in urban areas who depend on daily earning, which has been interrupted by the Covid-19 containment measures.
According to cabinet, the proposed cash transfer is aimed at reaching 501,107 households in the Kampala Metropolitan Area, all cities and municipalities.
“It is proposed that each beneficiary household will receive Shs100,000 net. The government will cater for the withdraw fees,” the cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday.
For the purposes of the cash transfer intervention and guided by the nature of occupations, cabinets identified the following categories of vulnerable persons who depend on daily earning and whose livelihoods will be disrupted as a result of the current 42 day lockdown measures;
- Bus/taxi drivers and conductors
- Baggage carriers, wheel barrow pushers, touts, traffic guides and loaders in taxi, bus parks and stages and other major commercial centres such as kikuubo,
- Barmen, DJs, barmaids , waiters and bouncers
- Bar, gym, restaurant workers
- Food vendors in bus, taxi parks and arcades
- Artistes (musicians, comedians , producers, promoters)
- Boda boda riders, special hire drivers and uber drivers
- Saloons, massage parlor workers
- Teachers and support staff in private schools and teachers in government schools not on government payroll
- Car washers
- Slum dwellers
- street vendors, shoe shiners and cobblers
- Orphans and vulnerable children
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