By Salome Gangire
Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) participants in Neno District have received mobile phones on loan from Weathnet Finance Plc to improve transition from direct manual cash payment to electronic.
This follows Neno District Council’s transition from manual cash transfers to electronic payments through the Kaku Pay Smart Money platform in May this year, covering all SCTP beneficiaries.
Speaking during the phone distribution, Weathnet Finance Plc’s Human Resources and Administration Manager, Tapiwa Banda, said the company was committed to ensuring that no participant is left behind in accessing cash electronically.
“We realised that some beneficiaries did not have mobile phones, which are essential for accessing their payments. We, therefore, thought of providing phones on loan to willing beneficiaries to enable them receive their money conveniently,” Banda added.
She said each mobile phone costs K49,590 and beneficiaries will repay the amount in instalments for six months, with deductions made directly from their monthly social cash transfer funds.
Banda further disclosed that, so far, 2,560 mobile phones have been allocated to beneficiaries that registered for the initiative, saying more people have shown interest and will be considered in subsequent distributions.
One of the beneficiaries, Lines Jeremani, from Lumbe Village, Traditional Authority Chekucheku, hailed Weathnet for providing SCTP beneficiaries with the mobile phones, saying the phones will ease challenges in accessing payments.
“I did not have a phone before. Every time our payments were made, I had to borrow a phone and pay K500 as a fee. Sometimes I would find out later that we had been paid because my SIM card was not in any phone. Borrowing phones also compromised my security when withdrawing money,” she said.
The District Social Welfare Officer responsible for the SCTP, Amos Chandilanga, said the initiative will significantly reduce cases of lost SIM cards, which have been common among beneficiaries that have no phones.
“We had many cases with beneficiaries losing their SIM cards simply because they were kept loosely or kept by other people. Having personal mobile phones will address this problem and improve cash security,” Chandilanga said.
He added that apart from accessing their payments, beneficiaries will also use the phones for communication, which will improve information flow with the council.
Neno District has a total of 3,493 households benefiting from the SCTP which is implemented by the Malawi Government through National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) with funding support from the World Bank and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund.
