KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has achieved its target of eradicating hardcore poverty as of July 31, 2024, said Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan.
He said this was based on last year's statistics, which involved 22,510 households and 94,315 family members.
"However, dynamic data, which evolves over time, recorded 3,978 hardcore poor households as of this September," he said in response to a question from Datuk Jonnybone Kurum (GRS-Telupid) during the question-and-answer session at the State Legislative Assembly sitting here.
The total number of poor and hardcore poor households in the state currently stands at 72,067, involving 265,335 family members.
The Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) secretariat has identified 268 households eligible for assistance based on reports conducted in 23 of Sabah's 28 districts and 11 sub-districts, he said.
The state poverty database system (PADANS) has been developed to store data and facilitate future cross-referencing, he said. Starting next year, he said the SMJ housing programme will increase to 40 units per constituency, totalling 3,000 units across 73 state constituencies at a cost of RM250 million.
As of November, 2,908 units have been completed, with 1,578 units currently under construction, he added.
The government is also providing one-off assistance for higher education registration (Budi), examination costs (Bakti), computer aid (Baik), and the Sabah education savings aid (Bistari) to 32,617 beneficiaries, amounting to RM17 million as of September 2024, he said.
He said a total of 220 households have been employed under the MySMJ work programme.
Additionally, he said 58,463 households have received Rahmah cash aid ranging from RM200 to RM1,200, while 50,556 families have benefited from Rahmah basic aid worth RM450 to RM1,200.
He said special cash assistance was provided to 1,218 households, amounting to between RM300 and RM600 over six months, with a total allocation of RM2.8 million.
As of October, he said a total of 487 households received assistance under the People's Income Initiative (IPR), which focuses on economic enhancement, including the provision of vending machines, retail businesses, agricultural programmes, and fisheries.