LEAP to disburse GH¢47m to 150,785 beneficiaries
The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, the flagship project of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has projected to disburse about GH¢47,449,626 to 150,785 beneficiary households this year.
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Already, some 88,932 beneficiary households throughout the country were paid a total of GH¢6,714,666 in January this year.
The amount included four months’ arrears of GH¢11,926 for new beneficiaries who were added to the project this year to end the programme’s 34th payment cycle.
Question time
A Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mr Alexander Ackon, made this known on the floor of Parliament last Tuesday when answering a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central, Mr Henry Quartey, who had sought to know how much money had been disbursed towards the LEAP programme in the 2013/2014 financial year.
Breaking down the total projected payout for 2015, Mr Ackon told the House that by the 35th payment cycle of LEAP that was due in March 2015, GH¢5,554,992 would be paid out to 90,785 beneficiary households.
He said in May, GH¢5,554,992 would be disbursed to 90,785 beneficiaries across the country.
The deputy minister told the House that in July, 150,785 households would receive some GH¢9,874,992 and in September 2015 the projection was that 150,785 beneficiary households would get GH¢9,874,992.
The programme would further disburse GH¢9,874,992 to an estimated 150,785 beneficiaries, he said.
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Projected payments
Mr Ackon, however, told the House that the total projected amount of GH¢47,449,626 would be spent only if the programme was able to register the estimated number of targeted beneficiaries.
That amount, he said, excluded a possible increase in grants to households that might be registered as a result of ongoing negotiations with the Finance Ministry.
An average of GH¢36 per beneficiary household was used to calculate the grant for new additions in 2015.
Mr Quartey wanted to know from the deputy minister whether the amount the ministry had projected to spend on the programme for 2015 was captured in this year’s budget.
He also demanded to know the criteria used to disburse the funds to the beneficiaries.
Mr Ackon said no allocation was made in the budget of the ministry for the project but that the programme would draw funding from the Finance Ministry’s budgetary allocation that covered the project.