Egypt’s cabinet launched, on Tuesday, the “Ahalena” (Our People) platform to support millions of irregular workers who were affected by the fallout of the coronavirus (COVID-19) across the country.
Under the slogan of “Together, we can help”, the platform is to allow individuals and the private sector to participate in providing social protection for irregular workers.
Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad said a website will be launched to allow companies and individuals to donate to affected workers.
The contributor will be able to donate through bank account no. 2030 at Banque Misr, or send a message to phone number 2030 from any mobile network.
The bank account is affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and all the donations will be allocated to irregular workers affected by the coronavirus.
On Monday, roughly 1.5 million irregular workers began to receive exceptional aid of EGP 500. The emergency financial assistance has been allocated to those affected by the recent economic implications and government lockdown measures.
The aid will be released over three stages with the first stage taking place between Monday and Thursday. Each worker will receive aid for three months, or a total of EGP 1,500.
There are currently different estimates on 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 was roughly 4.3 million in the third quarter of 2019.
Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saafan said in earlier remarks, however, that there are over 10 million irregular workers in Egypt.
