The holiday season, as well as the New Years, is expected to be relatively better for some 27,357 needy Jamaicans as they will receive a one-time payment of $ 16,000 under the COVID-19 cash assistance program. of the government.

The $ 155 million cash transfer initiative, which was officially launched last week, aims to help poor and needy people who are currently without government social assistance.

The United Nations World Food Program, through the Canadian government, provided a grant to the Department of Labor and Social Security to undertake the initiative.

The ministry is to oversee the equitable distribution of funds, with cash distribution facilitated by WiPay (Jamaica) Limited through its network of outlets across the island.

According to Portfolio Minister Karl Samuda, the use of WiPay aims to increase the efficiency of fund distribution and facilitate higher levels of accountability.

“We saw the need to make most of our business digital so that people can choose when to pick up what they need,” Samuda said when launching the initiative last week.

“They (the beneficiaries) will then have the money to do whatever they want and the place of choice to do their shopping, etc.” is very important to us, ”he explained.

To this end, Samuda praised the use of WiPay, stressing that “it is a precursor of what is on the way as we want to convert the whole operation of our ministry into a digital platform where we can have a instant recall, (and) instant assessment.

“We will be able to follow very quickly, everything that has happened, so it is a welcome intervention, and we look forward to the success that will result,” said the Minister of Labor and Social Security.