Older Persons to eat Museveni’s 5Bn and more funds to be allocated
The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, in charge of Elderly Affairs Hon. Dominic Mafwabi Gidudu has announced a Government initiative called the Special Enterprise Grant for Older Persons (SEGOP) to target older persons aged 60-70 years to support their households in income generating enterprises.
Hon. Dominic Mafwabi Gidudu revealed this while addressing journalists on the occasion to commemorate the International Day of Older Persons at the Media Center on Wednesday.
The Commemoration of the International Day of Older Persons will be marked under the theme: “Resilience of Older Persons to cope in a changing World.”
According to the Minister, the new grant of shs 5bn will target older persons who are not receiving Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) Program.
The new grant will target 1,896,190 old persons.
Hon. Gidudu said that this Financial Year, Government has allocated Shs. 5bn to kick start the Programme and will be launched during the National Celebrations on Saturday 1 October 2022 at Nebbi Town Secondary School in Nebbi Municipality.
The Minister said that the grant will target elderly persons who are out of business yet are still productive.
He added that to further affirm Government’s commitment towards improving older person’s welfare, Ugx121,264 Billion has been allocated to sustain the SAGE Programme following the expiry of the funding agreement with Development Partners.
“This means that Government has fully taken over funding of the Senior Citizens Grants which gives older persons monthly stipend of Shs. 25,000/=,” he added.
The National Council for Older Persons’ budget has also been increased from Uganda shillings 700 Million to Uganda shillings 2.4 Billion to strengthen monitoring of government programmes for maximum inclusion of Older Persons as requested last year.
Ms. Sight Akatukunda, SAGE Programme Communications Officer said that the Ministry is expecting to reduce the age at which older persons can get the SAGE funds and also increase the amount of money.
“That parliament endorsed the request to reduce the age and also increase the funds but only the ministry is waiting for the pronouncement from the government,” said Akatukunda.
In 2010, the government started the SAGE program that supports older persons above the age of 80 to enable them to meet some basic needs.
According to Hon. Gidudu, the venue for this year’s National celebrations is Nebbi Town Secondary School in Nebbi Municipality and the President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is expected to preside over the celebrations, as Chief Guest.
