The President of Malawi has announced the introduction
of an emergency cash transfer programme which will see a monthly payment of K35,000
($40) for the next three months to cushion vulnerable households from the
economic effects of various restrictions his government is implementing to
contain the pandemic.
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| President Arthur Peter Mutharika |
“We
are introducing an emergency cash transfer programme to serve small scale
businesses in and around our major markets in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Zomba
and others. This is an extended cash transfer facility to support Malawians who
depend on the markets for their survival. Government will target a minimum of
172,000 households in these areas, representing an estimated 35 percent of the
urban population,” he said.
He
said the program will be implemented for a period of six months translating
into three months of response and three months of recovery.
Each
identified household will be paid electronically through mobile payments
K35,000 per month and the amount is based on the prevailing government minimum
wage rate.
“My
government will continue implementing already instituted and announced measures
such as restricting movement to contain the spread of the pandemic; we will
also continue to recruit more health workers, establishing more testing centers
with a target of 15 testing centers across the country in the next three months
so that we effectively fight the pandemic,” Mutharika said.
The
low-income country, which so far seen has 36 positive cases of COVID-19 and
three deaths, has suffered from economic stagnation in recent years, leading to
increasing unrest over falling living standards.
The
World Bank said last week it had approved a $37 million funding package to help
Malawi respond to the coronavirus.
In
an interview later, Leader of Opposition in parliament Robin Lowe said he
welcomed the move but said the new committee should save the best interests of
Malawians. “If this is committee includes the church, Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs) and experts, then we are ready to serve in it, but if it
is business as usual just like the first one, then I am afraid I cannot
committee myself because we need a committee that will serve in the best
interests of Malawians and not political interests,” Lowe said.
Human
Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) Chairperson Gift Trapence it was important
that government clearly spell out how much will be spent and criteria to be in
place to identify the poor in the country. He said all the organisation has
been calling on the government to do was to provide safety nets for Malawians
to cope with the effects of the pandemic.
“The
second issue is that any lockdown should protect the poor from dying with
hunger, there must be clear safety nets on how social economic rights of
Malawians will be protected,” Trapence said. Livingstonia synod of the CCAP’s
Church and Society program’s Executive Director Moses Mkandawire said it was
very important for Mutharika to address Malawians on the issue.
“We
want an inclusive Covid 19 response where the welfare of Malawians is its sole
purpose where there is accountability in the way funds are being used”
Mkandawire said.
The
Malawi Law Society (MLS) opined that upon the president’s declaration of a
state of disaster, the committee that was instituted on March 10, 2020 ceased
to have any mandate and that the responsibility to manage the disaster would now
have been in the hands of the minister for Disaster Preparedness and Relief
Everton Chimulirenji. - Africa
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