KUCHING, Dec 12: This year’s Endowment Fund Sarawak (EFS) applications has shown unsatisfactory progress, with only 20,303 or 66 per cent out of 30,657 Sarawakian newborns registered as of Nov 30.
Sarawak Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said more needs to be done to promote EFS to Sarawakian parents who will deliver babies this year.
“Sixty-six per cent is not a good figure for us. Therefore, the EFS Committee has discussed on how we can improve.
“We have done many awareness programmes to promote both EFS aid worth RM1,000 and Post-Natal Assistance (BIB) worth RM450. We have also left the application forms to Social Welfare Department (JKM) and the hospitals to encourage more applications,” she said after chairing Endowment Fund Sarawak (EFS) Committee meeting at Baitulmakmur II building here today.
Since its introduction in 2019, a total of 104,804 Sarawakian babies have registered for EFS accounts amounting RM104.8 million allocation from the Sarawak government as of Nov 30.
Fatimah further thanked the Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg for RM15 million allocation under State Budget 2024 to continue EFS implementation for next year.
At the same time, Fatimah said Abang Johari has agreed to extend Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad’s contract for another year until Dec 31, 2024 to manage the EFS applications. — DayakDaily
