About 300,000 households have and will receive JD50 million in direct cash transfers from the National Aid Fund (NAF) for March, the fund's director, Omar Mashaqbeh, told Petra on Tuesday.

The payments include regular, temporary and recurring monthly cash transfers, Mashaqbeh said, adding that the fund will today transfer the assistance to about 115,000 families accessing the recurring monthly assistance program and supplementary aid scheme.

This is in addition to 12,000 most-in-need families benefiting from the additional financial aid program, he pointed out.

According to NAF director, the fund has already deposited cash assistance to around 85,000 families eligible for assistance under the supplementary aid program "Takaful 1" and 87,000 families placed under the temporary cash assistance program "Takaful 3" which targets households who are hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the number of beneficiary households comprises 20 percent of the total number of Jordanian families currently residing in the Kingdom. Mashaqbeh described the figure as one the highest coverage rates in the world.

He added that about 150,000 of the households are first-time beneficiaries, indicating that the expansion of social protection programs is the largest in the history of the Kingdom, and was ordered by His Majesty the Kingdom in a 2020 visit to the fund.

The NAF director stressed that the fund's teams are finalizing case studies and assessment of more than 18,000 grievances filed by households, noting that the fund will today transfer the assistance to those found eligible.

He said name lists of those eligible to access the "Takaful 3" program will be released in the next few days, pointing out that the scheme aims to reach 100,000 households.

According to Mashaqbeh, the total cost of March cash assistance is estimated at JD50 million.