More women than men get SAGE monthly payments – Minister

Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) provides for older persons 65 years and above a monthly stipend of 25,000 Shillings

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development Peace Mutuuzo says that elderly women have been recorded as the biggest recipients of the national roll out program of the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE).

Government rolled out the SAGE program to cover all districts of the country last year. The scheme was initially piloted in 15 districts before expanding to cover 60 out of the more than 100 districts across the country. Under the scheme, older persons who are 65 years and above and those who are 60 years and above in Karamoja region are given a monthly stipend of 25,000 Shillings.

Now while speaking at the national celebration of the International Women’s Day 2021 at State House Entebbe, Mutuuzo said since the launch of the national roll out of SAGE at last’s year Women’s day event, her ministry has completed the roll out and 60 percent of the program beneficiaries are women.

She reported that a total of 914,652 beneficiaries have received their payment in the first one year of the national roll out and that out of these, 548,792 are women while 365,860 are men. Mutuuzo says that the national roll out of the program has delivered 67 billion Shillings to the beneficiaries in all districts.

This year’s National Women’s Day was celebrated under the theme; Building on Women’s Strength for a Better Future in the Covid-19 World.

“The theme requires all of us in positions of leadership to commit towards mitigating the effects of the pandemic on women and girls and supporting their recovery,” said Mutuuzo. “The Covid-19 has affected our economy, escalated cases of sexual and gender based violence, increased pressure on the health sector and led to the closure of education institutions.”

She appealed to Ugandans to avoid violence saying that they should take all measures to stop all forms of violence. According to a Uganda Police Report, a total of 16,242 cases of Gender Based Violence-GBV were reported between January and June 2020.

Mutuuzo also says that economic exploitation must stop if the country is to register economic gains from women’s hard work.

Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide every 8th March and this year’s global theme was ‘Women in Leadership- Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid-19 World.

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