Elderly persons living in Mbale have raised red flags on the competence of Centenary Bank in handling their Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment.
These say the bank employees are not only rude but also lack the capacity to process these funds in time.
“When we were still getting this money from Post Bank, everything was ok but since it was transferred to be managed by Centenary Bank, cries have dominated,” they said
“We were getting our grant very well and in time but ever since they were changed to Centenary bank, some of us have never received a penny,” they added.
These accused the bank management of always failing them in their quest for their obligatory right yet “it is not their money,”
“It seems these people of Centenary Bank want to eat our money because if not that why would you deny me my money yet I used to get it while I was still going at Post Ban,” an angry elder said
These voiced their concern yesterday June 23, at Busiu Town Council headquarters while receiving their SAGE Cash.
This is not the first time these elders are voicing this concern. In April this year, a group of elders in Mbale stormed the office of Ahamada Washiaki, the Mbale City Resident City Commissioner after the bank manager had tossed them several times on the same issue.
Centenary Bank is majorly accused of conniving with the Community Development Officers (CDOs) to delay the process of getting this money.
“And through this, they have ended up eating our money at their comfort in their ‘ki-bank,” another angry elder said.
SAGE is a special Shs25000 assistance that is provided for elders by the government,
Burkina Faso Kunikina, the Chairperson for Elderly in Busiu TC attributed the current mayhem to a lack of proper coordination between the CDOs, and the centenary bank to help correct mistakes on the national ids and bank documents of the elderly persons to ease the SAGE program process.
Philemon Washipukhu the district chairperson elderly said that the CDOs have not done enough in sensitizing the elderly persons to help them know how this SAGE program operates. Adds that Busiu has been one of the less sensitized counties in the region as per the program operations.
Speaking at the function, Gidudu Mafabi, the State Minister for Elderly said that they have got a clear picture of what is happening with these elderly persons through their interaction and they are responding to their issues to ensure that such problems are addressed.
Gidudu, who represented Hon Betty Among Ongom, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development through said that the ministry has also registered challenges including the critical requirement of registration of national IDs to benefit from SAGE has resulted in exclusion especially older persons that have not registered yet they qualify for the grants.
He, therefore, called upon the councilors and CDOs to sensitize the elderly persons and also help them register their national IDs since it is very critical as a requirement by the bank of Uganda for one to have a NIN to be able to open up Sa bank account yet the senior citizen grant is delivered through a centenary bank the payment service provider.
In 2010, the government of Uganda through the ministry of gender, labor, and social development introduced the SAGE program as a pilot scheme in 15 districts to serve the senior citizens who are 80 years and above and it has become successful benefiting a cumulative 393,000 over the last 10 Years.
Currently, the program has 298,405 active beneficiaries with 179990 females and 118415 males as direct beneficiaries.
