Government of Uganda has said it will use the National ID data which is held by the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA) to identify vulnerable people who need relief food during the lockdown.
Prime Minister Ms Robinah Nabbanja said they will send the relief aid to the vulnerable persons via Mobile Money and vouchers instead of the door-to-door method used last year.
“We shall use the NIRA list and local authorities to identify these vulnerable people. We shall use mobile money because we believe it shall cut many administration costs,” she said on Monday, 21 June 2021.
However, the premier could not explain what criteria will be used to identify those who need relief using the NIRA database given that some of the data is old having been captured about five years ago.
But she said a committee will sit on Tuesday to decide on this.
“We shall sit tomorrow with the various committees and come up with the ‘how much’ each vulnerable individual will get. Vulnerable people are known, we have people who aren’t working now and those who haven’t worked for over a year,” she added.
On Sunday, Nabbanja announced that the COVID-19 task force agreed that the pandemic relief token to vulnerable groups be sent through their respective Mobile Money numbers.
“We have agreed to have direct payment method and voucher system to provide assistance to the vulnerable people (affected by the second lockdown). This time, we shall not give food. People have phones, we shall use mobile money. Those who don’t have phones, we shall use voucher system (to give the relief assistance),” Ms Nabbanja said.