Aggrey Mwanri

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administrative and Local Government) Aggrey Mwanri has instructed district, municipal and city councils in the country to register all elders and issue them with identity cards.

The Deputy Minister was responding to a supplementary question posed by Longido legislator Michael Laizer (CCM) in Parliament yesterday.

According to Mwanri, the IDs will help the elderly to claim health and other related social services in their councils from the district to the national level.

In his question, the legislator had wanted the government to clarify if there was a possibility for elders aged above 60 years to be provided with special IDs that will be used in accessing social services in their communities.

In response, the Deputy Minister said, the exercise of registering elders should be conducted immediately by directors in local councils, adding that will enable the government to allocate accordingly funds needed to serve elders in a particular area.

“The exercise should be done from grassroots to the national level,” he stressed.

On Monday this week, Labour and Employment minister Gaudentia Kabaka told the House that the government would in the next financial year (2012/13) allocate elders with pension fund to cover basic human needs.

According to the minister, the government was finalising important documents that include setting up the elders’ law following the government adaptation of its policy in 2003.

“A number of strategies for the elders’ pension fund implementation are underway, we expect when the parliament approves the Elders Act, the programme will come to effect immediately,” she said.