The Minister of Social Solidarity Nevin El-Kabbaj and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat witnessed, today, via videoconference, the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). The aim is to render full telecommunication services to beneficiaries of Takaful and Karama (solidarity and dignity) social protection program.
The agreement was signed by the Assistant Minister of Social Solidarity for Institutional Affairs and Civil Work Ayman Abdel Mawgoud, and Telecom Egypt’s CEO and Managing Director Adel Hamed.
The agreement comes as part of the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s effort to automate its services and enhance the digital transformation system pursued by Digital Egypt, that the Ministry capitalizes on to enhance governance mechanisms for all data, improve the quality of services and ensure a speedy response to citizen enquiries and complaints.
El-Kabbaj underlined that the Ministry of Social Solidarity is keen to improve the mechanisms of serving citizens, in all its programs. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi always directs for governing the data and procedures that help protect citizen rights and rationalize the use of state resources, as well as for the broad and rapid coverage of deprived and remote areas under the social protection umbrella, she added.
The Ministry of Solidarity seeks to unify all protection services in a single smart card for each citizen, with the National ID number available on the smart card, El-Kabbaj said, adding that the Ministry will soon announce its latest services in financial inclusion and electronic payment for citizens.
The Social Solidarity Minister commended the role that MCIT plays in supporting the Ministry of Social Solidarity, developing the partnership with telecom companies and with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA). El-Kabbaj said that the ICT Minister directly supports the digital transformation of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, providing support in networking and the automation of the Ministry at large.
The Ministry of Social Solidarity seeks to attain a number of goals, stated the Social Solidarity Minister. On top of these goals is enhancing effective communication and raising confidence between the government and citizens, through providing the highest time efficiency that is necessary to raise awareness of beneficiaries of the Ministry’s programs services updates. This is in addition to attending to inquiries, handling complaints and grievances, and orchestrating procedures for arranging social tracking visits, checks, research studies, or other purposes.
The ICT Minister said that the agreement comes as part of the productive cooperation between the two Ministries, that includes many areas and aims to harness ICTs to serve and develop the society, and achieve the digital transformation to build Digital Egypt. The agreement reflects MCIT keenness to promote social responsibility among ICT companies, he added.
Pursuant to the agreement, Telecom Egypt will provide the licensed telecommunication services to the most needy groups of the beneficiaries of cash support programs, especially widows, divorced women, breadwinners, elderly, orphans and Persons With Disabilities (PwDs), Talaat stated.
A range of full-fledged services will also be available to beneficiaries, including fixed and mobile phone services, in a way that helps maintain communication between the Ministry of Social Solidarity and citizens.
For his part, Hamed expressed his happiness to sign the agreement with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and support such major program, Takaful and Karama. He said that Telecom Egypt is keen to deepen ties with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and support the projects that serve citizens, within the company’s main role in supporting digital transformation in Egypt.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Social Solidarity has been automating social protection services for beneficiaries nationwide, especially the families and individuals who need social care the most. Th automation process started with the implementation of Takaful and Karama cash transfer program. In line with the requirements of these programs of coordination and communication with citizens, and given the urgent need for obtaining and verifying data, the Ministry of Social Solidarity realized the importance of having a fast and efficient mechanism for communication with beneficiaries of social protection programs. The mechanism will also help beneficiaries apply for services through electronic registration.
The agreement targets providing 3.5 million SIM cards to beneficiaries of Takaful and Karama program, in addition to providing Telecom Egypt voice and data services at a very low cost, thus helping citizens communicate with the Ministry of Social Solidarity in its offices. The agreement, in addition, will allow the Ministry to monitor the status of beneficiaries, in the event that a family data has changed or to receive their feedback on the services provided, as well as to roll out supplementary services to the current ones.
