802 Households benefit from LEAP grant

Eight hundred and two households at Osu in the Greater Accra Region have benefitted from the emergency Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash grant.

The households, which were affected by the June 3 flood and fire disasters that hit the national capital, were given GH¢100 each as part of the third-month cycle of the grant.

A household comprises members of the same family unit sharing a common income and expenditure.

 Government initiative

Speaking to the media, the acting Director of Social Protection at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mr Richard Adjetey, said families in disaster situations most often endured crippling difficulties.

He said in view of that, the government intervened by tasking the ministry to handle the situation through an emergency LEAP cash transfer programme.

He explained that the programme was aimed at addressing the temporary needs of the victims and also re-establishing their productive capacity.

He indicated that a means-text benefit method was used to scale down the 37,622 affected households given to the ministry by NADMO to 13,500 households.

Giving the breakdown of affected households enrolled on the programme, he said 6,996 households were affected in Greater Accra, with 996, 842, 1,307 and 962 households being affected in the Volta, Ashanti, Central and Western regions, respectively.

 Beneficiary

 A beneficiary of the programme, Ms Comfort Botchway, told the Daily Graphic that she was able to revamp her business with the money given to her by the ministry.

According to her, her container shop was carried away by the flood, making her unemployed until the intervention of the LEAP programme.

She said life had become a bit comfortable after she received the money, which she had reinvested in the business.