Over 30,000 register for ration card, ESSN on first day

BEIRUT — Within one day of its launch, 31,700 people registered on the government’s electronic platform for two long-awaited social assistance programs — the World Bank-funded Emergency Social Safety Net and the government's ration card — Impact, which manages the platform, announced Thursday.

Here’s what we know:

    • Impact also provided a graph that shows that most of those who registered are based in and around Tripoli, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon.

    • On Wednesday, the government launched the registration platform for the two programs, two and a half months after it was initially supposed to launched. It will likely be at least another three months before the assistance offered under the program reaches the pockets of beneficiaries.

    • The $246 million ESSN loan was approved by the World Bank in January, while funding the ration card program has yet to be secured.