Egypt to grant EGP 500 to irregular, seasonal workers due to coronavirus – minister

Starting Monday, and for four consecutive days, Egypt will grant EGP 500 ($32) to around 1.4 million irregular and seasonal workers who became jobless due to the coronavirus outbreak, Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan said.

The disbursement is the first of three grants totalling 1,500 Egyptian pounds ($95.08) in financial assistance to be distributed in the next three months, Ahram Online reported.

The emergency payments are meant to help seasonal workers and those whose incomes were severed because of restrictions on businesses and movement.

Saafan said each beneficiary will be sent a text message with the date of disbursement from either one of 4,000 post offices, 600 schools or an Agricultural Bank of Egypt branch.

The manpower ministry announced last month that the government has approved the allowance for irregular workers, opening for registration on its website www.manpower.gov.eg.

Around 1.9 million have registered to receive the grant; but some 500,000 requests didn’t meet the application’s requirements.

The disbursement comes a few days after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said the government hadn’t disbursed the emergency payments yet because it was still determining the best method to distribute the grant without having the beneficiaries converging on one place.