The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has revealed that it will commence its 45th cycle payment for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme from 21st to 25th November, 2016.
A total of 212,919 beneficiary households in all the 216 districts of the country will be paid their LEAP grants. During the payments, one eligible person in a household will receive GHS64.00 while a household with two eligible members will receive GHS76.00 and that with three eligible members will receive GHS88.00. Households with four or more eligible members will receive GHS106.00.
These payments cover the months of September and October 2016, the LEAP Programme Secretariat of the Ministry has indicated.
The 45th cycle payment also includes 192 households of alleged witches in Gushegu (Northern Region), the Tamale Children’s Home (Northern Region), the Bekwai Central Destitute Infirmary (Ashanti Region), and the Mampong Babies’ Home (Ashanti Region). The rest are the Ankaful Leprosarium in the Central Region, Osu Children’s Home in Greater Accra, and St Joseph Orphanage at Jirapa in Upper West Region.
Beneficiaries of these ‘institutions’ belong to a special social category who benefit from the LEAP Programme by automatic inclusion. The inclusion of the specialised category as LEAP beneficiaries is in line with the programme’s objective to reduce the plight of the vulnerable and marginalised in society.
All the beneficiaries of the LEAP Programme will be paid electronically on the e-zwich platform provided by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) through Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). The e-zwich payment platform requires biometric fingerprint verification of beneficiaries for payment to be effected. Thus, LEAP programme operates on the principle that “without biometric verification there will be no grant cash-out or payment” to beneficiary households.
To facilitate access to healthcare services, LEAP beneficiaries are participating in a nationwide National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration exercise. The registration exercise is currently ongoing. To date, a total of 91,118 LEAP household members have been registered free-of- charge onto NHIS. The registration exercise is expected to end by 21st December 2016.
In building a resilient social protection system of the MoGCSP, there is the need to equally support people who find themselves in situations of shock induced by floods, rain and windstorms among others. This form of support is captioned “Emergency LEAP” by the MoGCSP.
Emergency LEAP is, therefore, a temporary cash grant which is provided to people who have been affected by social, environmental and natural disasters. The cash grant serves as support to assist them cope with the impact of the disasters and, thereby, stabilise them. Persons/households who are Emergency LEAP beneficiaries receive the cash grant for a brief period usually three months.
Four (4) districts namely Bawku West, Bongo, Builsa South, and Talensi of the Upper East Region were affected by rainstorms and floods. The MoGCSP, through the LEAP programme, supported a total of 2984 affected persons from these four districts under Emergency LEAP.
The first payment, which covered the months of September and October 2016, was paid to these affected persons, with each beneficiary receiving GHS200 for two months.
The final and second payment to these Emergency LEAP beneficiaries is scheduled for 28th November-1st December 2016.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
