Luanda – Angola announced Tuesday that it is extending for 2025 the deadline of its Programme for the Strengthening of Social Protection “Kwenda”, the minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, has said.
The programme expects to assist 1.6 million families by 2023.
Available data indicate that until the end of 2021, the Kwenda programme benefited 314,000 families in the first phase with cash transfers. Each of the families received quarterly 25, 500 kwanzas.
From a total of 650,000 households registered in the country, 62 percent are led by women, who were registered in 6,500 villages from 42 municipalities and 158 communes in the country’s 18 provinces.
According to the minister, the programme was designed for three years (until 2023), but due to the positive impact, the World Bank decided to extend the funding until 2025.
Carolina Cerqueira also said that with this World Bank procedure, the number of families targeted by the programme will increase, as well as the monetary values that each household currently receives, which is of 8,500 kwanzas per month.
The minister underscored that the monetary amounts allocated to families are mostly applied in economic and productive activities, a fact that demonstrates its impact on the communities.
“The families are using this income for inclusion and productivity,” the minister stressed.
In the meantime, the secretary of State for Budget and Public Investment, Aia-Eza da Silva, underlined that the Kwenda Programme has four main components, namely the cash transfer, productive inclusion, municipalization (decentralization) of social action and the single social data registry.
Aia-Eza da Silva added that the programme has always counted on the support of the World Bank and that its first budget of 200 million US dollars has just been doubled in recognition of the positive impact it has had at the level of the communities.
Kwenda is a programme created by the Angolan government operated by the Social Support Fund (FAS), with the aim to support families in situations of poverty and vulnerability.
The country has already applied 23 million dollars from the total of 420 million dollars available, of which 320 million dollars are financed by the World Bank and 100 million by the Angolan government.
Kwenda has supported 17 000 direct beneficiaries and 84 000 indirect ones in economic and productive initiatives, focusing on agriculture, fishing, animal husbandry, honey production, cutting and sewing, motorcycle cab, community boxes, product transformation, and handcrafts, according to the families’ vocation.
Source: Angola Press News Agency