The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has announced a 100% increase in cash grants for beneficiary households under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme effective July 1.
The primary aim of the LEAP programme is to alleviate poverty by increasing and stabilizing consumption among the extremely poor and vulnerable populations.
As asserted by the Ministry, 324,073 households are benefiting from the programme and an amount of GHC103,251,072.01 has been released by government for the LEAP grant.
The cash grants provided to households enrolled on to the LEAP programme with the 100% increment as of June 2023 was GHC128 and now GHC256 which will be paid to 1 eligible member household bi-monthly. GHC152 paid to 2 eligible member household is now GHC304, GHC176 paid to 3 eligible member household is now GHC352 and GHC212 paid to 4 eligible member household is now GHC424.
This development occurred against the backdrop of delayed grants after the 100% increment in June 2023 as described by some beneficiaries of the programme.
Addressing the recent issues in a press conference at the Ministry on June 28 2024, the sector minister, Dakoa Newman assured the public that there will be no more delays in the future.
“This takes effect from July 1, 2024, and the payments are made bi-monthly so every two months, payment is supposed to be affected. Looking at how much is being paid now for July, that amount of money would have catered for the 4 months that was January, February, March, April, which means the next time we would have had to make payment will be in July,” the Minister said.
She added, “But this money that is being paid is catering for just January and February. Now that this amount has been committed to, we are assuring the general public, that we will not be defaulting in any payment going forward.”
She also reemphasized on the need of a reassessment of the programme.
There were some concerns raised about the grants for the programme given to party foot soldiers, but the minister denied the assertion.
“There’s no evidence to prove that some of the beneficiaries of the LEAP program are party foot soldiers. I am not aware of that. What I know is that the LEAP Programme goes through a rigorous assessment process to determine who is to be enrolled,” Ms Newman stated.
By Sarfoa Boahene
