President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says his government has shown sensitivity to the needs of Ghanaians by increasing welfare payments as the best means of reducing poverty, pointing out that the welfare of Ghanaians matters to him.
According to him, over 75,000 people will be selected to benefit from the GH¢11 million Covid-19 Relief Fund launched recently by his government and indicated that the beneficiaries are vulnerable people and households, mainly daily wage earners, to cushion them against the devastating effect of the Covid-19.
In a social media post on Sunday, President Akufo-Addo indicated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is sensitive to the needs of Ghanaians.
“In the midst of a pandemic, the government took measures to cushion Ghanaians against the devastating effects of Covid-19. #YourWelfareMatters #4MoreForNana,” he posted on Facebook.
The government, with support from the World Food Programme (WFP), is to disburse funds to vulnerable persons and households in the Greater Accra, Western and Ashanti regions
The President continued, “334,084 households have benefitted from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, representing a 53 per cent increase in beneficiaries under the NPP government.”
He said, “The needy and vulnerable can trust Akufo-Addo to do more for them” and added that the Common Fund disbursement to Persons Living With Disability (PLWDs) had been increased from two per cent to three percent, and provided 1,800 PLWDs with GH¢ 4 million to scale up their businesses.
“The NPP government is a government for PLWD,” he noted and indicated that during the period of the lockdown, government, through the Gender Ministry and NADMO, provided 1,827,581 and 917,142 cooked food packages to vulnerable persons within Accra and Kumasi respectively and dry food packages to about 470,000 families in collaboration with faith-based organisations.
President Akufo-Addo said his government had again disbursed 80 per cent of MASLOC loans to female applicants because the government recognises that “women business owners are the backbone of our economy.”
He disclosed that the number of beneficiary pupils under the Ghana School Feeding Programme had been increased from 1,671,766 in 2016 to 2,980,000.
“The feeding grant per child schoolgoing day has been increased to GH¢1 since 2018” and that “73 per cent of LEAP beneficiaries have been enrolled into National Health Insurance (NHIS) for free.”
President Akufo-Addo noted that his government had established the National Adoption Authority to coordinate in-country and international adoption of children to serve the best interest of children.
He said the NPP government, in collaboration with the district assemblies, had successfully exempted ‘kayayei’ from market tolls and continued that this had been done besides the establishment of a Social Protection Single Window Citizens Services designed to provide a single-entry point for major social protection programmes.
By Ernest Kofi Adu