Dr Rita Owusu-Amankwa
Government will, this year, inject GH¢200 million into the implementation of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and GH¢500 million into the School Feeding Programme (SFP) to expand the number of beneficiaries and reduce poverty in Ghana.
Government will also provide $200 to each LEAP beneficiary and equip them with entrepreneurial skills after exiting the programme, in order to be financially independent.
It is expected that 1. 6 million Ghanaians, comprising 350,000 extremely poor households, will benefit from LEAP this year, while 2.6 million children are expected to benefit from the School Feeding programme.
Dr Rita Owusu-Amankwa, the director at the Social Protection Directorate, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, announced this at the premiering of a video documentary on the impact of the LEAP programme in Accra.
More to register
The documentary, organised by the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, a policy think tank, provided opportunity for stakeholders to understand the impact and challenges of the LEAP implementation in Sissala West in the Upper West, Shia-Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region and Kintampo South District.
Dr Owusu-Amankwa said each LEAP beneficiary is supposed to enjoy free healthcare under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and urged beneficiaries who have not registered under the scheme to do so.
Responding to the assertion that some LEAP beneficiaries walk about 50 to 70 kilometres to collect their grants, she said the Department of Social Welfare, the programme implementers, have set up collection points within five kilometres radius.
She said since the implementation of LEAP in 2008, there had been no exit plan for beneficiaries.
Therefore, government is receiving support from the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) to re-assess the programme this year, in order to implement an exit strategy for beneficiaries.
Skills training
Government will also implement a Production Inclusive Capacity Programme where every LEAP beneficiary will undergo entrepreneurial skill training so that they can fend for themselves after exiting the programme, Dr Owusu-Amankwa stated.
She said the World Bank and DFID are supporting the government to develop an electronic management system, known as the Ghana Household Registry, to enable the Department of Social Welfare correctly target households that genuinely need the LEAP grants.
Social interventions
Mr Franklin Cudjoe, the founding president and chief executive officer of IMANI, in a brief remark, said it is imperative for government to take a critical look at the various social intervention programmes, re-assess the challenges and re-align them to graduate extremely poor households to the arena of economic prosperity.
Mr Cudjoe said, while he appreciates the benefit of the various social interventions implemented so far, it is prudent to address the teething challenges and offer management training skills to beneficiaries so that they will live dignified lives after exiting the programmes.
Credit: GNA
