The Zambian government has started distributing feature phones to pensioners who are the elderly beneficiaries of financial support under the Social Cash Transfer. 

Zambia's Ministry of Community Development and Social Security (MCDSS) stated that elderly beneficiaries were prioritised after concerns emerged that many senior citizens still faced difficulties accessing their funds.

According to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Security principal public relations officer Glenda Nachinga, over 200,000 phones have so far been distributed to senior citizens across the country.

Nachinga said the initiative is aimed at helping beneficiaries receive their social cash transfers directly through digital platforms.

Currently, the Social Cash Transfer Programme supports a total of 1,555,840 beneficiary households across 116 districts, of which 89% are already receiving their payments through mobile money platforms and banking systems.

She says the initiative reflects the government's continued progress towards digitising social protection services and improving financial inclusion.

The ongoing exercise is expected to further enhance efficiency, accountability, transparency and convenience in the delivery of social cash transfers nationwide.

In many instances, beneficiaries possess only SIM cards and rely on other people's mobile phones to verify receipt of funds, a situation that exposes them to inconvenience, dependency, potential exploitation and the risk of losing SIM cards altogether, which further disrupts their access to payments.

By directly providing mobile phones to beneficiaries, the government seeks to empower vulnerable citizens with secure and reliable access to their funds while promoting financial and digital inclusion, particularly among rural and marginalised communities.