LEAP beneficiaries to receive July, August payments
A total of 76,913 beneficiary households in 130 districts in all 10 regions of the country are to benefit from GHc4,918,404 as their social intervention payment for July and August.
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The payment, implemented under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, transfers into GHc48 to a single beneficiary of a household; two beneficiaries of a single household are entitled to GHc60; three beneficiaries of a single household get GHc72, while a family of more than four beneficiaries is eligible to GHc90.
This was made known by a Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mr John A. Ackon, at a media briefing in Accra yesterday.
National Household Register
According to the deputy minister, a household register, which would promote effective and efficient coordination among other ministries and agencies mandated to implement any national pro-poor programme in terms of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, was in the offing.
“The register, the Ghana National Household Register, would provide a database of the extremely poor and vulnerable in society to enable them benefit from current and future social protection interventions,” he said.
He said the ministry was in the process of establishing a national targeting system to enable it to develop the national register to facilitate and improve the implementation of social protection intervention programmes in the country.
He said the tracking system was to enable the ministry to ensure that the beneficiaries of pro-poor programmes were actually the target group.
The tracking system would further ensure that the progress of such people are monitored to ensure their movement from those pro-poor conditions into a better economic status.
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Electronic payment
Mr Ackon said the disbursement of the July and August 2014 LEAP entitlements would begin from September 23 to September 26 and would be the 32nd in the cycle of disbursements.
He said the ministry, in collaboration with three companies, had introduced an electronic payment system for beneficiaries of the programme, with MTN, E-zwich and Aya Technologies piloting it in seven regions and nine districts.
The e-payment, he said, was to make disbursement of the LEAP grant easier, safer, cheaper and faster.
Background
The LEAP programme is a pro-poor social intervention programme which disburses funds to the poorest households in Ghana.
Through the programme, the government assists the poorest families with their basic needs, including food and improved health.
People who qualify under the programme include orphans, vulnerable children, the aged and the elderly from 65 years upwards and severely disabled people who cannot work.
Writer’s email: doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh