In a new operational move, BISP has launched an awareness raising drive across the country to inform BISP beneficiaries about the exact time and dates for their quarterly stipend payment processing.
The initiative was part of BISP’s commitment to ensure more transparent approach in tranche disbursement. The campaign would not only reduce the fiduciary risks involved, but also educate the beneficiaries about the exact amount of stipend per beneficiary along with complete information for withdrawal of their money.
The initial campaign has been launched on Radio on the basis of Media Habits Survey, which asserts Radio as ‘key beneficiary engagement tool.’ The radio campaign has been designed in accordance with the disbursement plan of all six partner banks for delivery of BISP tranche to its beneficiaries. The campaign will also be executed through BISP official Social Media accounts including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The disbursement mechanism for BISP’s Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) program mainly includes both Biometric Verification System (BVS) and BISP Debit Cards (BDC). The awareness campaign has been launched in different regional languages to ensure communication of message to the beneficiaries in diverse geographical regions. It includes multi-lingual messaging in Urdu, Gilgiti, Sindhi, Saraiki, Pashto, Punjabi, Hindko, Balochi and other languages.
Chairperson BISP Dr. Sania Nishtar appreciated the launch of pro-beneficiary engagement activities through radio campaigning and urged that more such efforts should be initiated to assist the BISP beneficiaries in getting the exact and correct information about the arrival of their tranches and other opportunities, as per vision of the new government.
The campaign is first of its kind as a huge challenge existed earlier with regards to payments to BISP beneficiaries. A number of fraudulent elements, tout mafia and other scrupulous elements were feared to deceive BISP beneficiaries.
On the administrative side, BISP is in process of adopting the Biometric Verification System (BVS) mode of payments; which is latest trend in banking to deal with any fraudulent practices. The radio campaign, on the other hand, has been planned to support the awareness needs of beneficiaries to avoid fraudulent elements, understand the payment process and take full amount of stipend i.e. PKR 5000/- without giving it to any agent.
BISP is constantly expanding its beneficiary engagement process and adopts various communication tools and approaches to reach its beneficiaries.
Published in Daily Times, March 21st 2019.
