Cairo: Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk announced that the value of social protection programs will rise from EGP 35 billion to EGP 40 billion between March and the end of June, focusing on the most vulnerable groups.

According to State Information Service Egypt, the minister made these remarks during a news conference held by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli following the cabinet’s weekly meeting. The government is set to roll out a new social protection package early next month. As part of this package, the ‘Takaful and Karama’ pensions will see a permanent increase of 25 percent starting April 1. The minister highlighted that this pension, distributed through a cash transfer program, had not been increased for some time.

Regarding the subsidy system, the minister stated that nearly 10 million ration cards would offer more benefits after refining beneficiaries’ data beginning next month. With these measures, each single card-holder will receive an additional EGP 125, while each family will receive approximately EGP 250.

Furthermore, the ‘Takaful and Karama’ program will extend cash benefits to 5.2 million families as of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, expected to commence early next month, providing EGP 300 for each family.