KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — A total of 354,392 self-employed individuals in the country have registered under the Self-Employment Social Security Scheme (SESSS) as of yesterday.
Social Security Organisation (Socso) chief executive Datuk Seri Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed said a majority of them were individuals working in the e-hailing sector, including passenger transport as well as goods and food delivery services.
“Nearly 210,000 individuals working in this sector have registered under the scheme, as well as around 1,400 individuals from the agriculture sector,” he told reporters today.
He was met at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between Socso and the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) here today.
Mohammed Azman signed the document on behalf of Socso while Mada was represented by its general manager Kamarudin Dahuli. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Mada deputy general manager (Technical) Nik Kun Nik Man and Socso’s deputy chief executive John Riba Marin.
Mohammed Azman hoped the cooperation will enable more individuals from the agriculture sector to participate in the scheme.
“I would like to thank Mada because they are the first agency to look after the welfare of farmers by working together with us to implement this scheme for its members,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mada chairman Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman in his speech said the cooperation was a starting point for the agency to provide protection to farmers.
As a major producer of rice, he said one of Mada’s major challenges was that some of its farmers were over 60 years old and are at risk of various illnesses.
“To date, a total of 266 farmers under Mada have registered under the scheme.
“We are targeting to increase the number to 1,000 by February 1 and we are confident that within a year, we can move more aggressively to ensure that all 57,000 farmers under Mada can contribute to this scheme,” he said.
— Bernama
