Isaac Essel
1 February 2008
Accra — The government has described as an "unimagined absurdity" claims that the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) that seeks to give direct cash to the extremely poor as an election gimmick.
"The objection that a welfare programme is dubious because it is an election year is a very unworthy objection. If pursued, then indeed, all development activity (building of roads, hospitals, schools, rural electrification, pay increase etc should all cease in an election year. It is an unimagined absurdity", Nana Akomea Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment said at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
He said an election year does not prevent the government from implementing its policies under the National Social Protection Strategy aimed at giving support to the poor, vulnerable and excluded in society.
Nana Akomea said the LEAP programme is a complement of other social protection strategies like the Capitation Grant, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), School Feeding Programme and free ride for school children, all of which are meant to build the socio-economic capacity of the most vulnerable to enable them to contribute to national development.
He said, "the primary target of the LEAP Direct Cash Transfer is the 18.2% of people identified by Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) who fall into the category of extreme poor." Under the LEAP pilot programme, the poor people who have been identified to live under one dollar a day would be given a range of GH¢8-15 a month to alleviate their poverty. The amount will depend on if the extremely poor household also has an orphan, severely disabled person, and persons aged over 65.
The five-year programme will end in 2012 where an estimated 164,370 households would be covered. 15,000 of them would be covered this year when the programme is rolled out. The total amount involved in the pilot is GH¢26m, about one per cent of the country's GDP. Beneficiaries would be issued with identification cards to withdraw the money from post offices.
The Minister said the programme has received support from DFID and UNICEF. The government also allocated GH¢20 billion to support it last year and has earmarked another GH¢220 billion for 2008. Nana Akomea said currently, a national sensitization exercise is going on involving meetings and consultations with regional and district partners to dialogue and sensitize them on their respective roles.
He said LEAP was designed by a team of local and international experts who have designed and implemented similar programmes in other developing countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica and Turkey; the design, he noted, has been reviewed and validated by relevant stakeholders.
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