Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the disbursement of Tk1,250 crore in cash assistance for five million poor families hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.
The premier inaugurated the disbursement through a video conference at her official residence Ganabhaban on Thursday.
During the video conference, she also also expressed deep condolence on the demise of more than 450 Bangladeshi who died abroad from coronavirus infection.
The premier has said that some shops and industries have remained open during the holy month of Ramadan because life cannot come to a halt.
Earlier on Monday, Dr Md Enamur Rahaman, state minister for disaster management and relief, told BSS that the total fund would be disbursed between May 14 and 18, and every day one million people will get the cash support through the Mobile Financial Services (MFSs).
The total fund will be distributed among the five million families through MFSs such as bKash, Rocket, Nagad and SureCash.
About the selection of families, the state minister said their list had been prepared keeping the most impoverished families on it, out of the 12.5 million vulnerable families who are now getting the government’s relief assistance.
On the same day, the Finance Division released Tk1,257 crore for the cash assistance, where Tk627 crore was disbursed for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) from the Budget 1 wing, while Tk630 crore was disbursed from the Budget 3 wing. The PMO is supervising the operations of this initiative.
Nagad, a joint venture of the Post and Telecommunication Division and a private firm, will distribute the highest amount of Tk425 crore, while market leader bKash will disburse Tk375 crore, Rocket Tk250 crore, and SureCash Tk200 crore, sources at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief said.
The prime minister will later launch the distribution of stipends and tuition fees among the students of bachelor and its equivalent level of 2019 academic year through mobile and online banking, a source at the PMO said.
Earlier, the prime minister announced a set of stimulus packages of nearly Tk1 lakh crore, which is 3.5% of the country’s GDP, to offset the economic fallout of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, imposed on March 26 to contain the highly contagious and deadly disease.
She declared a Tk5,000 crore incentive package for the agriculture sector to boost crop production and to fend off the possible Covid-19 impact.
Sheikh Hasina simultaneously announced a stimulus package of Tk5,000 crore for export-oriented industries to fight the impact of the lockdown.
Bangladesh has been under a lockdown since March 26, a week after the first death from Covid-19 was recorded in the country.
As of Wednesday, 17,822 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the country since its first detection on March 8. Among them, 269 patients have died, and 3,361 have made full recovery.
