By Fred Siminyu
Older Persons in Kaliro district want the age limit for accessing funds under the Government Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) Program lowered.
They allege that Government has unfairly treated them because whereas the programme targets those aged 65 years and above, with the exception of Karamoja where the target is 60, in Kaliro it has been placed at 80 and above to access the funds.
The older persons expressed their dissatisfaction with the programme during a press dialogue on August 3, at Namugongo Sub County headquarters.
“Given that the current life expectancy for Uganda is at around 63 years, how do they expect us to live up to eighty so that we get that money,” one of the older persons, Mzeyi Nsadhu queried.
SAGE is part of the Social Protection Programme (ESP) implemented by the Government of Uganda under the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development currently with beneficiaries enrolled to access their pay through Post Bank Uganda
Through this programme, government gives out a monthly allowance of 25,000 shillings to older persons to enable them not only access basic services, but also start income generating activities.
During the recent launch of SAGE on Women’s Day in Mbale, graced by President Museveni at Malukhu grounds, the Managing Director,
Post Bank Uganda, Julius Kakeeto revealed that Government had increased the number of elders to benefit from the programme from 167,000 to 220,000 persons.
According to Kakeeto, the program has been in 67 districts and with the addition of 14 districts to the SAGE initiative, the figure of beneficiaries rises to 220,000 covering 81 districts in Uganda.
“We have been paying 167,000 elderly through our network of 44 branches and mobile vans. With the mobile vans, we can reach parishes, the elderly do not have to move long distances to find service points for retrieving their funds.”
SAGE was started in 2016 as an initiative to reduce poverty amongst the elderly who have a low productivity and can barely go to work.
