Minister of Finance, Mr.Ken Ofori Atta has said Government is committed to expanding coverage Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to all 2,500,000 extreme poor individuals as estimated by the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 7) by 2024.
The Minister said while improving efficiency through digitalization and assessment, Government will, in 2023, increase the value of the LEAP grant from the average of GHC 41.75 per household to GH¢95.19 bi-monthly.
Presenting 2023 budget statement in the floor of parliament, Mr.Ken Ofori Atta said the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme has since its inception in 2008, supported extremely poor and vulnerable households; increasing beneficiary coverage from 143,552 in 2015 to 344,389 households comprising 1,827,035 individuals as of September 2022.
Mr.Ofori Atta said the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) which provides one hot nutritious meal each day for 3,448,065 beneficiary pupils in public basic schools as of December, 2021 will be sustained.
According to the Minister, in 2023, the feeding grant will be increased to reflect the current cost of living and the programme will also strengthen domestic production by sourcing locally produced food from the National Buffer Stock Company.
“Government abolished the charging and payments of all forms of fees/levies in all public basic schools and replaced them with the capitation grant in 2005. This has contributed to steady increases in enrollment over the years. Government will continue to strengthen monitoring to address teething challenges in the implementation of the policy which include; timely release of the grant, misuse of funds, transparency and poor book keeping and value of grant amount”.
Source: Mybrytfmonline /Kofi Atakora
