Kumasi, April 26, GNA – Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has asked beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to use the funds for their basic needs.
This would help achieve the government’s objective of helping the very poor and the marginalized in society to cater for needs such as food, drugs, and other essential daily requirements.
Mrs Dapaah, who is also the Caretaker Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, made the call when she inspected the ongoing payment to the beneficiaries of LEAP in the Ashanti Region.
The inspection was to monitor and ensure that the monies were appropriately dispensed to help the beneficiaries meet their needs.
The LEAP programme is a cash transfer for the extremely poor and vulnerable households in Ghana.
The programme aims to reduce poverty by smoothing consumption and promoting human capital development among extremely poor households.
It is expected that the LEAP cash grants would promote access to services and opportunities for these poor households and help them to meet their basic needs.
Mrs. Abena Dapaah, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the inspection, expressed satisfaction with the disbursement of the monies.
She said due to the digitalization of the process, it had been smooth and the issuance of the receipts had shown a lot of satisfaction.
“The process is smooth and orderly.
It is a good policy to help the poor and vulnerable households and the government needs to be commended for continuing it,” she said.
The Caretaker Minister said the current beneficiaries were the extremely poor, elderly, 65 years old and above.
The rest, she said, were orphaned and vulnerable children, persons with severe disabilities who could not work, and pregnant women or mothers with children under age one.
Mrs. Abena Dapaah advised the beneficiaries to utilise the monies well to help go a long way to cater for their basic needs.
The current disbursement is for the 75th and 76th cycle payment and beneficiaries received double their bi-monthly grant.
They were paid through E-zwich at designated pay-points in their respective communities.
Places visited were Dakojom, Daban and Sokoban, all in the Kumasi metropolis.
At Dakojom, 10 households were benefiting, 22 from Daban and 21 households from the Sokoban community.
A household with one eligible member receives GHC64.00, two receive GHC74.00, three receives GHC88.00, and four and above received GHC106.00.
Some of the beneficiaries expressed appreciation to the government for the support over the past years, saying that the monies had gone a long way to help them cater for their families.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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