Elderly in Gulu Miss SAGE Money over Irregularities On National IDs

Older persons in Gulu district are missing out on the government’s Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment, SAGE, due to irregularities on their national Identity (ID) cards. 

SAGE is a social Protection Programme implemented by the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. The program targets older persons aged 80 years and above, and beneficiaries are expected to present their National IDs at payout points.

Mary Oywa Apoto, the LCV councillor representing older persons in Gulu district council, says that officials who carried out registration during the mass registration for National IDs assigned wrong ages to older persons, which has inadvertently made them miss out on social protection funds.

“Some older persons were unaccompanied when they went to register for National IDs, so the officials who were carrying out the registration exercise were just estimating their age. In many cases, they were given years much lower than their real age,” says Oywa.

She cited a case in Omel Sub County where an elderly man’s National ID indicates that he is 76 years old and can therefore not benefit from SAGE, while his son is already benefiting from the government program.

Beneficiaries receive 25,000 shillings, which is paid in a quarterly lump sum of 75,000 shillings.

Oywa says she has so far documented over 250 cases of older persons whose true age does not correspond with the age assigned to them on their National IDs.

“Many older persons in Gulu district are bitter about missing out on SAGE. This money is small, but it is important for them”

The National Housing and Population Census of 2024, carried out by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), indicates that there are 14,079 older persons in Gulu district.

Anna Grace Akot, the Community Development Officer in charge of Older Persons and Persons with Disability, says she has reached out to the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) over the anomaly.

“Because of the war, many older persons have suffered memory loss and do not remember basic facts like when they were born. They only remember the major events that happened when they were born. Many of them lost their documents during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. We are asking NIRA to correct the mistakes so that they also benefit from this government support,” says Akot.

Akot adds that, “When we are paying SAGE funds to beneficiaries, many of them turn up expecting to get paid but are disappointed. We end up giving them money from our pockets because they usually don’t have even transport to take them back home,” says Akot.

Michael Muganga, an official in the communication department at NIRA, says that such mistakes can be corrected as long as the SAGE candidates have proof.

He says the agency receives such concerns, but that all NIRA requires is authentic data to correct mistakes made on one’s National ID.

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