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By GATONYE GATHURA
NAIROBI, KENYA: The fight against the hunger that is devastating thousands across the country is being digitalised.
The new system is replacing the traditional food aid programmes that many times have been hard to execute. Already, about half a million of the poorest families in Turkana are receiving cash transfers through biometric cards with plans to scale up the amounts as the drought unfolds.
According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), a cash transfer programme mainly funded by the British and Australian governments is running in Turkana, with Kenya putting in Sh4.6 billion for the period 2013-2017.
In a brief from the authority, the initiative called Hunger Safety Net Programme will be expanded to cover all hungry people in arid areas.
In a new roadmap detailing how to respond to the unfolding hunger released by the London-based Overseas Development Institute, the fight this time round will be on digital platforms, involving mobile cash and bank transfers.
The front-runners are Safaricom and Equity Bank, with the latter handling the NDMA cash transfer programme. Already, the World Food Programme has tested two models that could quickly transfer money to hungry households.
According to the road map sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the model involves transferring money electronically to beneficiaries’ personal accounts, in this case with Equity Bank through the Safaricom network.
VILLAGE BANK
“Beneficiaries open accounts with Equity Bank and are issued with ATM cards to withdraw cash at village bank agents,” says the January report, which is sponsored by DFID.
Food cash transfer recipients are now able to buy from commercial outlets.
“The switch to cash for drought response and the new partnerships forged with banks and telecoms represent a radical departure from the traditional emergency response practice in Kenya,” says the report’s principal author Jim Drummond.
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