Social grants need targeting – PM

PRIME Minister Nahas Angula has argued in Parliament that it would not be wise to increase budgetary allocations to social welfare without establishing which households need further support.

All People’s Party (APP) leader Ignatius Shixwameni has tabled a motion calling for the introduction of a Basic Poor Household Income Grant (BPHIG) under which every household with a minimum of three and a maximum of six persons with a combined income of N$250 000 per year should be considered as poor, and should thus qualify for a N$2 500 per month.Angula is of the opinion that given all Government social support, Namibia can be described as a social market economy, an economy based on social justice and private sector development. Such social support, he said, is in the form of pensions, benefits to veterans of the war of liberation, grants to orphans and vulnerable children, the special development programme for the San and other marginal communities for whom N$5 million was budgeted, provisions for residential and institutional care and disability, student grants and loans, provision for youth development programmes, grants to women’s projects, the National Training Authority, support to small and medium enterprises, affirmative action loans from the Agricultural Bank of Namibia, and the land reform programme. Yet, he acknowledged, many people fall between the cracks as far as welfare is concerned. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare is currently doing a gap analysis to assess whether society’s needs are adequately addressed.The ministry is also amending the Pension Act of 1992 into the Basic Grant Bill, and the Social Security Commission is busy with the implementation of a national pension fund and a national medical benefit fund.