TACLOBAN CITY – To prepare poor households for the country’s shift to cashless transactions, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has launched its digital financial literacy program “e-Panalo ang Kinabukasan” in Leyte province, providing 100 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries with brand-new mobile phones.
The initiative, piloted in February 2024, aims to transition 4Ps cash grants from traditional cash cards to electronic wallets, ensuring that beneficiaries are digitally equipped to manage their finances.
“This is an initiative of the DSWD to ensure that all 4Ps beneficiaries are digitally and financially literate. We are now in the stage of moving to electronic transactions, so we need to ensure our beneficiaries can keep pace with these changes,” said DSWD-8 Regional Director Grace Subong.
By teaching beneficiaries how to use digital tools, the program hopes to end the practice of cash card pawning, reduce travel expenses to ATMs, and promote responsible use of grants. It also encourages saving, investing, and using financial resources more wisely.
“e-Panalo is a way out of poverty. By promoting digital financial literacy, our beneficiaries learn to save, invest, and spend wisely because this program is not forever,” said 4Ps National Program Manager Gemma Gabuya during the launch.
Under the program, Globe Telecom and its fintech arm GCash distributed the mobile phones to selected beneficiaries from different towns in Leyte. Beneficiaries were chosen based on the availability of internet connectivity in their communities.
The DSWD emphasized that digital transactions will also widen beneficiaries’ access to financial services, such as bill payments and online purchases, while ensuring faster and more secure disbursement of grants.
Launched nationwide as part of the government’s effort to modernize poverty reduction programs, e-Panalo is expected to gradually cover all 4Ps beneficiaries in the coming years.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
