Payment to LEAP beneficiaries triples

The Ghana government, with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), has tripled cash payments to beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.

A household of an individual that previously benefited from GH¢8 will now receive GH¢24, an additional individual in the household previously receiving GH¢10 will now receive GH¢30, a third additional vulnerable person previously receiving GH¢12 will now receive GH¢36, while a fourth additional person previously benefiting from GH¢15 will now have GH¢45.

The co-ordinator of the programme, Mr Lawrence Ofori-Addo, said the increased payments would take effect at the next payment of the grant, which is next week.

In an update on the programme after the publication of Implementation status results of World Bank-assisted projects published this month which rated as satisfactory the Ghana Social Opportunities Project, of which LEAP is a component, Mr Ofori ­Addo said 70,000 households in 97 districts were currently on the programme.

“We hope to extend the coverage to 75,000 households in 100 districts by the close of the year,” he added.

Other achievements by the programme are a revised operations manual and a common target mechanism, a co-ordinated system of identifying those to benefit from pro-poor interyentions.

Five ministries – Employment and Social Welfare, Health, Agriculture, Local Government and Rural Development and Education – have come together to develop that common targeting mechanism.

All the ministries involved will use the system to identify people who are in need of interventions and meet those needs ina targeted manner.

Currently, beneficiaries of LEAP are also benefiting from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), with interventions from other sectors such as agriculture and education to be added.

Source: Daily Graphic

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