By Tikondane Vega
Thyolo, Mana: General Manager for Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) Mpamba Christopher Sukasuka said the company it is ready to roll out electronic social cash transfer payment in Thyolo district soon after finalizing some technical issues.
Sukasuka said this on Thursday in Thyolo during the inception meeting with Thyolo district council where the company explained how the programme will be conducted.
Government through Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare announced that it will soon fully migrate from manual to electronic social cash transfer payments in all the 28 districts across the country in order to improve service delivery.
Sukasuka said after signing their contract with government this week, the company’s focus is to do the work better to demonstrate the seriousness TNM has towards their partnership with government.
He said he knows that people have high expectations from TNM Mpamba as such the company has assigned specific staff to conduct Social Cash Transfer payment for the district.
“We know it is a tall order to conduct the work efficiently but the company will do as much as it can to be a role model in this programme so that others can learn from us also in course of doing our work.
“I would like to assure the council that the 17000 Social Cash transfer beneficiaries in Thyolo will be taken care of with our company. However, as company we need proper coordination with the district to do the job better,” said Sukasuka.
District Commissioner for Thyolo Douglas Moffat said the social cash transfer transitioning to harmonized E – payment is timely because the manual model had high levels of staff sourcing and high risks of theft.
Moffat said the new method of payment will help bring a sense of dignity to the beneficiaries since everyone will do their cash withdrawal at their convenient time hence no one is going to know more about their financial privacy.
He said,” it is high time people learn to use new and better ways of doing things and say goodbye to the old fashioned ways which have been difficult to utilize.
“This will improve service delivery in the district on Social Cash transfer payment considering several challenges the manual model has been encountering in the past years.
However Moffat warned TNM to work professionally in the course of doing their work saying any case of abuse from their staff going to the beneficiaries will not be taken lightly.
First assessment TNM did in the district revealed that Thyolo has 83Mpamba Super Agents, 979 ordinary agents, 14 franchise shops and 66 kiosks and with the work given to the company, TNM Mpamba is likely to add more cash outlets.
Social cash transfer electronic e-payment pilot phase which was being conducted in Ntcheu and Balaka proved that the electronic payment is efficient and effective compared to manual payment.
