Gender ministry seeks sh10b for older persons welfare
Mar 01, 2024
“As we plan to lower the eligibility age, older persons aged 60 to 79 years will benefit from the Special Enterprise Grant for Older Persons (SEGOP) as the Government mobilises resources to lower the eligibility age for SAGE,” Gidudu said.
Minister of state for elderly affairs together with MPs and gender ministry officials. (Courtes photos)
Nelson Mandela Muhoozi
Journalist @New Vision
___________________ Minister Mafwabi, Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development
The Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development is advocating for a substantial budget allocation of shillings 10 billion to address the pressing needs of the nation's rapidly growing senior population.
The move highlights a shift toward recognising the unique challenges and vulnerabilities faced by the elderly.
Speaking at the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Social Protection (UPFSP) that took place at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala, early this week, minister of State for elderly affairs Dominic Mafwabi Gidudu said elderly persons often rely on personal enterprises to support themselves due to limited social security schemes available, especially after mandatory retirement.
Although the Government introduced the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) targeting persons aged 80 years and above, Mafwabi noted that SAGE leaves out the majority of the older people who are still economically active and can engage in income-generating ventures.
“As we plan to lower the eligibility age, older persons aged 60 to 79 years will benefit from the Special Enterprise Grant for Older Persons (SEGOP) as the Government mobilises resources to lower the eligibility age for SAGE,” he said.
Mafwabi added that SEGOP will provide grants to older persons in groups to start enterprises to enhance household incomes. The proposed funds would be directed towards several business initiatives in livestock (local chicken, piggery, goats, sheep, and rabbits, among others).
The current fund under SEGOP is shillings five billion. The ministry wants the fund to be boosted to at least shillings 10 billion. It is anticipated that the grants will enable older persons to meet necessary basic needs to enable them to live a decent life at the same time keeping them active in the money economy.
According to gender minister Betty Amongi Ongom, SEGOP is aimed at bridging the gap in the SAGE, pension scheme, Emyooga, and Operation Wealth Creation, among others to support older persons with wealth creation funds to undertake income-generating activities to increase their household incomes.
The introduction of SEGOP, Amongi said, is a response by the President to a request by older persons to have specific funds that can support enterprise development for older persons.
On October 1, 2021, President Museveni while officiating the international day for older persons directed that sh10b be reserved for SEGOP to support the older persons excluded from SAGE in enterprise development. In the financial year 2022/2023, the government provided sh5bn for this programme.
Nevertheless, Jacob Richards Opolot, the Advocacy Advisor for UPFSP, said the current focus of the Ministry is to continuously lobby for lowering the eligibility age of SAGE to at least 75 years.
MPs speak out
The MPs in the social protection forum supported the SEGOP programme, promising to speak out so that more funds are allocated to it.
They said SAGE only targets older persons aged 80 years and above, about 350,000 persons thereby leaving the majority of them between 60 and 79 years with no specific old age programme.
Peggy Joy Wako, the National Woman MP for elderly persons, rooted for more funding to cater to the needs of the elderly and vulnerable people and underscored the importance of health insurance, especially for the elderly who are often affected by health complications.
Achan Judith Peace, the District Woman Representative for Nwoya Country, also reiterated that the urgency for action is undeniable.
She suggests that the Government should quickly roll out a National Health Insurance Programme to enhance access to essential basic health services, especially for low-income individuals, households, and the elderly.
“There is a need to document and progressively revive traditional social support systems to complement formal social protection services for the poor and vulnerable and explore possibilities for inclusion in accessing social protection services,” she said.
Statistics
Article 33 of the Constitution says: “The state will make reasonable provision for the welfare and maintenance of the aged”. However, the negative attitude towards older persons has translated into several realities over the years, according to Opolot.
According to the gender ministry, 0.8 percent of older persons have access to loans, while the rest are marginalised by the banking sector as a high-risk category.
Less than 0.5 percent of older persons have access to health insurance and the rest are excluded as an expensive category, and not profitable in insurance.
In addition, less than 0.2 percent of the older persons have access to the bonnabagagawale programme, less than 0.6 percent have access to the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) programme and less than 0.5 percent have access to the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP).
Despite economic growth, it is evident that a significant proportion of people in Uganda still have a low quality of life, exacerbated by growing inequality.
Old-aged persons constitute 4.3% of the population which is estimated at 45.6m as of 2023 (49.3% male and 51.7% female).
This number is expected to increase 4 times by 2050. Therefore, this calls for strategic interventions like the insurance scheme to ensure social protection for the vulnerable population.
The Ministry's proposal underscores the growing awareness of the demographic shift in Uganda and the importance of developing sustainable policies to safeguard the well-being of its aging citizens.
No Comment