by Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Feb 4: Sarawak registered 26,731 newborns who received the Endowment Fund Sarawak (EFS) in 2019.
Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said although Sarawak recorded a total of 36,117 births, 33,304 were Sarawakian status with ‘K’ on their identification.
“However, out of 33,304 Sarawakian babies, only 80.26 percent (26,731) registered for EFS last year. Based on my ministry’s statistics, Kuching recorded the highest registration for EFS at 10,217, followed by Sibu (4,803), Miri (3,894) and Bintulu (1,800). The lowest registration was recorded in Samarahan with only 466 applicants,” she said at a press conference today.
The EFS is a one-off assistance of RM1,000 to each Sarawakian baby born with effect from January 1, 2019, aiming to assist children’s future education and career.
Urging Sarawakian parents to register their babies, Fatimah also reminded the public that EFS was not automatically given to each newborn.
“EFS is for all newborns effective January 1, 2019 irrespective of race, religion or social status as long as they are Sarawakians born in Sarawak or outside the state. Parents need to apply for the assistance which will be submitted by National Registration Department (JPN) after they register their baby’s birth.
“From there, JPN will submit the applications to Bank Islam and the ministry for verification. Once that is done and approved, the ministry will issue payment voucher to Bank Islam, which applicants will later receive the RM1,000 in their respective bank account,” Fatimah explained.
For this, the state government had allocated RM40 million in 2019, and RM30 million for 2020.
Meanwhile, for this year, the ministry had recorded 1,472 registrations for EFS as of Jan 31.
Kuching received the highest registration at 983, followed by Sibu (348), Miri (309), Bintulu (204), Sarikei (148), Limbang (85), Samarahan (67), Sri Aman (65), Betong (60), Mukah (58), Kapit (36) and Serian (34). —DayakDaily
