The government is yet to start distributing the $6 per person COVID-19 relief money, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare said today in a post-cabinet meeting briefing.
According to minister Paul Mavhima, the government had to verify first that people on the beneficiaries’ list are genuine cases.
The minister also said the allocation per individual has also been raised from ZWL $200 (the equivalent US $4) to ZWL $300 (US $6 at today’s parallel market rate).
Said the minister:
On the issue of the $200, we had been tasked by the cabinet to go and look at the numbers snd make sure that what we’re working with are bonafide citizens who should receive this money under the criteria that we use to establish vulnerability.
And we have had to go back to the whole list and we have so far approved 90,000 to be paid. We continue to look at that database so that we can pay to bonafide citizens.
You’ll also want to know that our discussion with the treasury has now raised the figure from $200 to $300 and we should be starting paying these 90,000 that have been verified.
The government announced the fund in April and initially said that distribution would start in April.
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