04/05/2021
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum yesterday announced a new assistance programme rolled out by the Government for Fijians living in containment areas.
The programme will commence from the Nadi and Lautoka Containment Zones and will be followed by Lami, Suva and Nausori containment areas.
“This will be by way of assistance to them by giving them access to cash which they can buy what they think is important to them. This, of course, will be given through a system where we can have accountability.”
The A-G explained that the Government has been in consultations with the telecommunication companies and both Vodafone’s MPaisa and Digicel’s My Cash platform will be utilised.
The assistance will amount to $90 which has been calculated based on the values of groceries handed out during the Suva – Nausori lockdown which were valued at $45 a pack, cartage cost included.
“Based on this and the extraordinary request we received during the weekend, we, therefore, will be giving two lots of $45 as a grocery payment to those Fijians living in the Nadi and Lautoka containment areas.”
“This particular assistance will be for those who currently do not get any unemployment benefits or any other forms of assistance or cannot actually go to work either because the business of the occupation that they are in is not operational,” the A-G said.
“If they do not have Fiji National Provident Fund or cannot access FNPF because they do not have an active account then they are entitled to this particular benefit.”
“We will be looking at somewhere in excess of $1.8 million if uptake is on the higher end number of 20,000 families to apply out of the 35,000 households along the Nadi to Lautoka corridor and that will be disbursed through the Mpaisa and My Cash system.”
Fijians wishing to access the assistance will have to text their names, the number of people in their household with the telecommunications provider assisting in verifying their locations through their system.
“By that verification then, of course, we will be able to disburse the funds,” the A-G explained.
“The onus is on the people whether to use the MPaisa and My Cash platforms to purchase groceries or take out the cash.”
“We ask people to please use these funds responsibly as this does not mean that you may take out the funds to buy ci******es and yaqona but to buy essentials for your families like diapers and baby formula for those with young ones at home, whatever the case may be.”
The A-G further said that the Government is placing a particular level of trust on the citizens of Fiji who will be the beneficiaries.
“We have to ensure that there is proper accountability, there needs to be a new culture of honesty about this and please we urge everybody that we have actually wanted to come up with a much better system and this is the best system to be able to deliver and give accessibility to affected Fijians to be able to buy food items and their necessities.”
The A-G further said that the same system will be later on applied in the Suva, Lami, Nakasi and Nausori corridors where it is estimated that a total of $2.5 to $2.6 million will be utilised for an anticipated 30,000 households who may wish to access the assistance.
“We hope to have this assistance running by Thursday and we will in all likelihood start with a smaller area to iron out technical aspects of this in Nadi, starting from Momi Junction to Lomolomo and then we can move to Lautoka the next day.”
A telephone number to access this benefit will also be activated and announced.