The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) intervention is meant to empower a targeted population and not to provide for their basic needs. The Director of Child Rights, Department of Social Welfare,  Stephen Adongo, said  this in Sunyani. He reiterated that the government-introduced intervention would serve as a ‘spring board’ to help the target population to ‘leap’ out of the malaise of extreme poverty and not to make the poor dependent on government as projected by a section of the media.

Illustrating the programme, the Director said extremely poor households would be provided with “fish and taught how to fish” by linking them to other complementary programmes. Speaking at a forum on the LEAP programme and the National Social Protection Strategy, organised by the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr Adongo stressed that under the intervention, 20 per cent of eight hundred and eighty thousand  extremely poor persons would be targeted.

He stated that under the programme, a monthly stipend of eight Ghana cedis to a maximum of fifteen Ghana cedis would be paid per household but that would depend on the number of people who would qualify. The Director, however, stated that due to the incapability of the sector Ministry and the Department’s shortfall in logistics, payments would be made every two months, beginning January, this year.

 Mr Adongo added that beneficiaries would be expected to converge at a designated pay point chosen by the Ghana Posts and identity cards would be issued to them before any payment would be made. He said already, 21 pre-pilot districts have been selected and 10 regional social welfare and 21 district welfare officers are also being trained for the programme.

In an address read on his behalf , the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, said it is the philosophy of the NPP government to maximize the nation’s human resource potentials.  The Regional Minister added that “the vision of creating an all inclusive and socially empowered society is on course through the provision of sustainable interventions such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Capitation Grant, School Feeding Programme, Agricultural Input Support and Micro-Financial Schemes for the protection of persons living in situations of extreme poverty and deprivation.