The Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Protection says more Ghanaians in the vulnerable category, have been registered onto the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
The Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Gifty Twum Ampofo, told journalists at Oboadaka, “We have about 50% of the vulnerable on the LEAP. In the Eastern Region, we have seen about 30-35% increase in the number of LEAP beneficiaries.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”zuwuWPajywM5ZdtL1bv6JM1zZDAQLvaK”]“We are hoping within the shortest possible time, we will graduate some of them in the LEAP exit plan. The plan has coincided with what we call the Ghana National Productive Safety Network which is sponsored by the World Bank. Two ministries will be responsible for it: Gender Ministry and the Local governance ministry.”
The Deputy Minister also said that her establishment is working towards making sure that LEAP beneficiaries don’t travel for more than 5 kilometres to get what is due them.
“Even though the system doesn’t want any beneficiary to travel more than 5km, some of them have to do it. This is because when you go there with electronic systems, you can’t pay them because of the inaccessibility of telecom networks. We are working towards that to make sure that all communities will have some form of accessibility so that beneficiaries won’t have to travel that far.”
About LEAP
LEAP was launched in 2008 as a social cash transfer programme that will provide cash and health insurance to extremely poor households across the country.
Following the establishment of the programme, a team of social protection and social policy analysts were assembled to design an implementation manual.
The first disbursement of cash grants under LEAP was done in March 2008 with 1,654 households in 21 pilot districts.
LEAP implementation not reducing poverty in northern Ghana
In April 2018, the then Gender Minister, Otiko Afisa Djabah, said that poverty is still high in the three regions of the north despite the up-scaling of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme (LEAP).
According to her, poverty remains a major obstacle to the growth of most rural dwellers for which reason Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies must up their game in the area of poverty eradication.
“A chunk of the cash grants given to the LEAP beneficiaries went to the three regions of the north and I implore Metropolitan, Municipal and District Executives to see LEAP as an important tool that could move Ghana Beyond Aid.”
“Currently, LEAP has covered all 254 MMDAs nationwide with 213, 044 beneficiary households which translate into about 937, 907 individuals. Women constitute 56 percent while men constitute 44 percent.”
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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
