The Egyptian government has announced that it will start disbursing the first batch of the second phase of the country’s exceptional aid to irregular labourers on Sunday.
The financial dispersals will continue for 10 consecutive days.
Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said that the payments come as part of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s directives to extend the period of disbursement for the exceptional aid in light of the global health pandemic.
Mobile companies would send text messages to registered irregular workers to urge them to update their data on the platform designed by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center. This platform was made available on the website of the Ministry of Manpower from 8 to 15 October.
The number of workers who updated their data has reached 6 million so far. This prompted the government to apply eligibility criteria for the disbursement and carry out a filtration process.
After the filtration process, and in cooperation with the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), those entitled to the stipulated grant amounted to 2.26 million workers.
The beneficiaries of the second phase will be divided as follows: 690,000 workers who previously received aid in the first phase; 110,000 workers who applied for the first phase and did not meet the conditions as a result of incorrect registration but they updated their data in the second phase; and 60,541 workers who meet the conditions out of 96,000 workers who updated their data in the second phase. A total of 451,000 workers submitted complaints for not being paid during the first phase, in addition to 1.4 million workers who applied to obtain the grant for the first time.
Training programmes for irregular workers are being organised, coordinated and conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and other companies and agencies through the “Forsa” programme.
The aim is to help them refine their technical skills and raise their efficiency. Coordination is also being made with the Information and Decision Support Center to set up an “opinion poll” mechanism to determine the percentages of those wishing to receive training.
A sample of the database of irregular workers has also been chosen, with nearly 70% of the sample (those who do not have a job or have a temporary job and are between 30-50 years old) have expressed their desire to obtain training programmes to develop their skills to help them obtain decent jobs.
The results also showed that 33.6% of irregular workers returned to their work, and 68% of the sample are looking for jobs, which reinforces the state’s trend to provide training programmes for the affected irregular workers.
Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said said that supporting irregular workers would help the national economy overcome the current crisis. She noted that the state is keen on implementing the president’s directions to ensure that the rights of workers affected by the repercussions of COVID-19 are preserved.
