The need for government to increase the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) grant has been the call of many beneficiaries who are on the programme.
According to some of the beneficiaries, the current grant they receive is inadequate.
This comes on the back of an analysis of the 2020 political party manifestos on social protection by SEND Ghana and other CSOs which highlighted that the financial support for beneficiaries should be increased by 100%.
The report also recommended that the programme should be expanded to cover all eligible extremely poor persons (750,000) waiting to be enrolled onto the programme and ensure timely payments among other requests.
In an interview with Citi News, former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo said the previous NDC government transformed the policy under John Dramani Mahama.
“The NDC restructured and managed LEAP better. When we took over in 2008/2009 we had 1603 households on LEAP. President Evans Atta Mills increased it from 1,603 under President Kufuor to 70,000 under John Evans Atta Mills. John Dramani Mahama increased it to 213,000 households”.
The NDC’s spokesperson on Gender and Social Protection also touched on measures the next NDC government will put in place to review LEAP grant.
“We look at the numbers in the households so if you are the only person we have a certain amount. It could go to just over GHS100 if you are four or more in a household, so it depends. That is what the next NDC government will recalibrate. We will look at the economic circumstances and the inflation and recalibrate the amount”.
For the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Deputy Communications Director at the Presidency, Fatimatu Abubakar noted that the next NPP government is committed to improving LEAP.
“An exercise was embarked on about a month or two ago to collect data from all witches camp in the northern part of the country to enrol some of the women onto the programme. Previously LEAP beneficiaries were only receiving some stipend but now over 5,000 of them are receiving some form of training, so they do not stay on the programme forever especially the younger ones. The increment may be a thing for consideration, if the need arises it will be done”.