The ministry of finance yesterday announced that about 96% of applicants benefited from the emergency income grant (EIG) that government initiated in April to assist the less privileged and vulnerable members of society from the devastating economic impact of Covid-19.
According to the finance ministry spokesperson, Tonateni Shidhudhu, out of a total of over 800 000 applications, 769 130 individuals have benefited from the grant to date.
Shidhudhu said the ministry concluded the payment process and will soon start with data reconciliation before they close off the project. He, however, stated there are some applicants who were not paid because they did not show up at their respective regional councillors’ offices for verification. Last month, Shidhudhu noted thousands of applicants were sent to constituency offices for physical verification purposes.
“As a result, such applicants would be subjected to data scrutiny and reconciliation to identify which applicants did not go for verification, and then the way forward will be decided,” explained Shidhudhu.
The reasons why these applicants were sent to constituency offices included indications they received their grant from a number being shared by more than one person and those who made mistakes in their applications, such as incorrect ID numbers or surnames.
Last month, the ministry indicated that 765 452 people received their grants already. Shidhudhu noted that when the verification process began, the figure for the beneficiaries stood at 747 281. This means the ministry exceeded its target and delivered the EIG to more than the initial estimate of 739 000 beneficiaries.
Due to the increase in the number of applicants, the ministry managed to allocate an additional N$210 million to top up the original budgeted amount of N$772 million.
According to Shidhudhu, all qualified applicants will be catered for.
Shidhudhu noted the number of EIG applicants decreased after the validation process identified those who were already paid, those who are probably receiving other grants or working and those categorised as not having lost income, and who do not qualify for the grant for various reasons. - mndjavera@nepc.com.na