FINANCE minister Bwalya Ng’andu says the government wants to increase social cash transfer (SCT) programme by more than 200, 000 households next year.
In his 2021 national budget presentation in Parliament on Friday, Dr Ng’andu said the number of beneficiaries under the traditional social cash transfer programme would be increased to 994,000 households in 2021.
The current number of beneficiaries, according to Dr Ng’andu, is 700,000 households.
“Further, the amount per household will be increased to K110 from the current K90 per month,” Dr Ng’andu said.
He also said this year, some parts of Zambia experienced the unfortunate confluence of floods and the COVID-19 pandemic, which required an emergency response over and above the traditional social protection programmes.
“In this regard, a total of 90, 202 households were supported under floods and droughts emergency cash transfers in 23 districts while 258,000 households were supported under the COVID-19 emergency cash transfers across the country,” said Dr Ng’andu.
“To enhance household food security, government will increase the number of beneficiaries under the Food Security Pack Programme to 288,492 vulnerable but viable households in 2021 from 80,000 in 2020.”
©Kalemba 2020
