Deputy Country Director of SEND Ghana, Dr. Emmanuel Ayifah
The Deputy Country Director of SEND Ghana, Dr. Emmanuel Ayifah has accused the government of denying some 30,000 households under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program their benefits.
Speaking at a press conference organized by SEND GHANA on Tuesday in Accra, on the delay of the payments of LEAP grants to beneficiaries, Dr Ayifah said the adverse effects of the delays in the LEAP cash grant payments were not farfetched.
The affected beneficiaries, he said, included orphans and vulnerable children, people living with severe disabilities, and elderly people without any support.
He disclosed that the organization has severally called on the President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government to aggressively put in measures to address the continuous delays in the LEAP payments, but to no avail.
According to him, SEND Ghana has not been happy with the government’s laid-back approach towards the release of funds for the program.
Dr. Ayifah explained that the current delayed payment had resulted in the denial of income to 344,023 households made up of approximately 1.5 million Ghanaians who depended on it for their daily sustenance.
He stressed that it could affect the nutrition, education and health of beneficiary household members, thus, rendering household members much more miserable than they were initially.
He further appealed to the government to prioritize the payment of LEAP grant to enhance poverty reduction in the country.
The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty is a cash transfer program introduced by the government of Ghana in 2008, for extremely poor and vulnerable households.
By Annie Wharton Savage