Govt. Spent GH¢7.5M On Leap Year

Government has spent GH¢7.5 million on the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme between January and October last year. The amount was disbursed to 10,234 beneficiaries in 50 districts.

The beneficiaries received between GH¢8.00 and GH¢15.00 depending on the population of the household. A household of two persons received GH¢10.00 and GH¢15.00 respectively.

Mr. William Niyuni, Officer in-charge of Monitoring and Evaluation of LEAP at the Social Welfare Department in Accra told the The Ghanaian Times that the “bi-monthly allowance for November to December is ready but our office is awaiting the returns for September to October from the Ghana Post Company before disbursing them.”

Mr. Niyuni said the objective of the programme is to empower and help the extremely poor to meet their basic needs, adding that the stipend was to help them “out of the malaise of extreme poverty, and ultimately empower them to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.”

He said 19 districts which were put on the programme on emergency basis after it had started in 2008, have now been added to the regular list to bring the number of districts benefiting from the programme to 50.

He said the feedback that the LEAP received through the Community LEAP Implementation Committee indicates that many beneficiaries had become responsible and were engaged in in-come-generating activities.

Mr Niyuni said the LEAP office is strengthening its monitoring mechanism to ensure that the programme is not abused so that it continues to make significant impact on the lives of the people.

The LEAP was introduced in March 2008 under the then Ministry of Manpower, youth and employment as a social intervention programme to cater for orphaned and vulnerable children, the extremely poor who are above 65 years and persons with severe disabilities without productive capabilities.

The five-year programme which falls under the National Social Protection Strategy is expected to cover 164, 370 households by 2012.

Source: The Ghanaian Times