Gender Ministry begins LEAP payment today

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) will commence the 45th cycle payment of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme from November 21 to 25, 2016.

A statement issued in Accra and copied the Ghana News Agency said a total number of 291912, beneficiary households in 216 districts will be paid their LEAP grants.

The statement said throughout the payments, one eligible member household will receive GH¢64.00, two eligible member household will receive GH¢76.00, while three eligible member household will receive GH¢88.00 and more than three eligible member household will receive GH¢106.00.

The statement added that the payment covers September and October 2016.
According to the statement, the 45th cycle payment also includes 192 households from ‘Alleged Witches Camps’ in Gushiegu (Northern Region), the Tamale Children’s Home (Northern Region), and the Bekwai Central Destitute Infirmary (Ashanti Region).

The rest are the Mampong Babies Home (Ashanti Region), Ankaful Leprosarium in the Central Region, Osu Children’s Home in Greater Accra, and St Joseph Orphanage at Jirapa in Upper West Region.

The statement said beneficiaries of these “institutions’ are special social category who benefit from the LEAP Programme by automatic inclusion and stated that the inclusion of the specialised category as LEAP beneficiaries is in line with the Programme’s objective to reduce the plight of the vulnerable and marginalised in the society.

“All beneficiaries of the LEAP Programme will be paid electronically on the e-zwich platform provided by Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), through Participating Financial Institutions (PFI’s). The e-zwich payment platform requires biometric fingerprint verification of beneficiaries for payment to be effected,” the statement said.

The statement said LEAP Programme operates on the principle that “without biometric verification, there will be no grant cash-out or payment” to beneficiaries’ households.

To facilitate the access to health care services, LEAP Programme beneficiaries are participating in a nationwide National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration exercise.

The statement said: “The registration exercise is currently on-going. To date, a total of 91,118 LEAP household members have been registered free-of-charge onto NHIS and it’s expected to end by December 21, 2016.