By: Seth Eyiah.
SEND Ghana, a Civil Society Organisation, is demanding the immediate release of funds for the 73rd and 74th Cycle Payments to the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, LEAP, beneficiaries across the country.
It said any further delays would only worsen the hardships of long-suffering households. It, therefore, behoves the government to place high premium on the LEAP grant payments.
Speaking to Journalists in Accra, the Deputy Country Director of SEND Ghana, Dr. Emmanuel Ayifah, said the public is fast losing confidence in the effectiveness of the LEAP and other such social protection policies and programmes to defeat poverty and address inequality, owing to rampant delays in paying beneficiaries.
Dr. Ayifah called for concerted efforts to collectively urge government to take decisive actions to bring a permanent end to the incessant delays in releasing funding for LEAP and other pro-poor interventions. He reminded the government of citizens’ right to social protection.
‘’There could be no better time to place high premium on effective and efficient social protection delivery than now, especially with COVID-19 potentially worsening and widening the inequality gap,’’ he posited.
Dr. Ayifah outlined a number of policy decisions such as the Social Protection Bill, setting up of a Social Protection Fund, and the Ghana National Household Registry, to ensure sustainable financing of social protection interventions. SEND Ghana believes these interventions would help to address all the delays in releasing funds for such social intervention programmes.
