The Egyptian Cabinet announced, on Wednesday, that the payment of exceptional aid to irregular labourers will be conducted nationwide at the beginning of December, through post offices and branches of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE).
Under the directives of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the financial aid will amount to EGP 500 per person, and will be disbursed to irregular workers who are registered on the Ministry of Manpower’s database.
The disbursement of the finance comes in a bid to support this segment of Egyptian society, particularly as it has been badly hit by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The same procedures that were used for disbursing the previous tranche of the aid will be followed, with beneficiaries to receive a SMS notifying them of the date and place of payment.
There are different estimates regarding the numbers of informal and irregular workers in Egypt. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the number of people who depend on intermittent work stood at roughly 4.3 million in the third quarter (Q3) of 2019.
The total amount that will be paid in the initiative amounts to EGP 317.9m, and will be granted to about 275,543 workers at 2,619 facilities affected by the pandemic. The subsidy’s value represents 100% of the basic wage for regular workers, which is the limit that the employer has insured for them, and that is fixed in insurance at a minimum of EGP 600.
