| The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is putting in place mechanisms to review the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to increase the number of beneficiaries and ensure sustainability.The review would pave the way for the Ministry to include more aged and People with Disability (PWDs) and provide seed monies for those willing to start a business to improve their living standards.
Mrs Cynthia Morrison, the Sector Minister, disclosed this when she supervised payment for 711 LEAP beneficiaries of three communities in the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region.
The communities are Agona Abodom, Agona Abigyakrom and Agona Nkranful. Mrs Morrison said the review would be pushed to Cabinet for approval to create equal opportunities for the helpless.
Mrs Morrison said there were 320,000 households nationwide benefiting from the LEAP programme, adding that government had also registered all beneficiaries onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) free of charge.
The beneficiaries received payment through e-zwich to avoid travelling over long distances to banks at Agona Swedru and surrounding towns to withdraw their money.
She said government attached great importance to the LEAP programme, hence its continuity to alleviate the suffering of the poor, aged and PWDs.
She advised caregivers not to mismanage the money but invest it in lucrative ventures to enable beneficiaries to get the best out of it.
Mrs Morrison and her entourage later paid a courtesy call on the Agona Abodom chiefs and elders to seek their blessings and to explain government’s policies and programmes to them.
Nana Owiro II, Benkuhene of Agona Abodom, on behalf of the chiefs, commended the Government for the good plans to cater for citizens through the LEAP, which would go a long way to alleviate the plight of the vulnerable.
He asked the Minister to put in place measures to check ghost names in the programme since some beneficiaries had passed on.
Nana Owiro said it was incumbent on the LEAP Officers to liaise with the chiefs, heads of families, assemblies and opinion leaders to remove names of the deceased from the list. |
