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Beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Programme Against Poverty (LEAP), in the Upper East Region, have expressed their gratitude to government for the intervention.

The beneficiaries, who expressed the gratitude at separate payment centres across the 10 districts in the Region, stated that the increment of the payment from 64 Ghana Cedis to 106 Ghana Cedis would help improve upon their livelihoods.

Giving some examples about the outcome of the intervention, the beneficiaries who were mostly widows, pregnant women and lactation mothers, stated that through the intervention they could pay for their children’s school fees, health insurance and feeding at home.
Mrs Salamatu Agrunehy, a 70 year old woman from Bongo-Beon, said through the support her daughters were able to support her process sheanut butter which she sells to make profit to take care of herself.

“Hitherto I used to sleep in my room which was not roofed but through the intervention I have been able to roof it and now sleep soundly in my room without being beaten by the rains anymore. Had it not been your intervention where will I be. I thank government for that?” she stated.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mr Kweso Armo-Himbson, explained that he was in the Region with a team to monitor the payment of the 38 cycle payment and said the programme was presently covering 184 districts.
He announced that the LEAP 1000 was targeting 6006 pregnant women and lactation mothers nationwide and would cover 200, 000 households translating into 80,000 people nationwide by the close of December 2015.

Mr Armo-Himbson said as part of measures to ensure effective payment and transparency, plans had been put in place by the Ministry to pay the beneficiaries through the electronic system, the mobile phones.

The Chief Director expressed hope that the intervention would also help address the nutritional status of children and women in the Region and disclosed that a total amount of 80 million Ghana cedis was currently being disbursed to the beneficiaries across the country.
He cautioned the beneficiaries to use their package judiciously to take good care of themselves, and noted that the President cared for the deprived and would want to see a positive transformational changes in their lives.

The Regional Director of Social Welfare, Mr Hamadu Haruna, said about 17,000 people from all the 13 district were beneficiaries of the programme, adding that the programme had made a significant impact on the livelihoods of the people.