• Nana Oye-Lithur (table head), Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, addressing participants at the press conference. Picture: EDNA ADUSERWAA

LEAP allowances increased

Daily Graphic Sep - 23 - 2015 , 11:36 2 minutes read

Beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme will, from September 28, 2015, see increases in their allowances.

One-member household which received GH¢48.00 will now receive GH¢64.00 while two-member households would now receive GH¢72 instead of the previous GH¢60.

Three-member households will get GH¢88 instead of GH¢72.00 and four or more member-households will be paid GH¢106.00 instead of the previous GH¢90.00.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday to announce the 38-cycle LEAP payment, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said the increment would help beneficiaries to get out of poverty faster.

She also said the programme would increase the beneficiaries from 52,000 households to 200,000 by December 2015.

She further stated that 50,000 new beneficiaries from 184 districts, including inmates of witch camps, government residential homes and homes for the destitute were being added to the programme.

According to the minister, 6006 beneficiaries of LEAP 1000 project in three districts in the Upper East and seven districts in the Northern Region would also receive their first payment next week.

She also mentioned that the LEAP programme would, from next year, engage in electronic payment, adding that in terms of institutional arrangement, LEAP was now an autonomous programme and agency under the ministry.

Success chalked up

Nana Oye said the programme had drastically reduced absenteeism by schoolchildren by 10 per cent.

Research carried out by the University of Carolina and Institute of Statistical, Social and Economical Research (ISSER) in 2002 showed that the LEAP programme had increased school enrolment in senior high schools by seven per cent, while repetition among primary and senior high school children and students respectively had been reduced.

In its quest to tackle malnutrition and prevent stunted growth among children and reduce maternal mortality in the country, the ministry launched the LEAP 1000 Project in February 2015.