LEAP to increase beneficiaries in Ashanti Region

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection would this year begin the processes to add on a total of 6,000 households in the Ashanti Region to the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme.

Nana Oye Lithur, the Sector Minister, said 400 of the beneficiaries, whose registration would start in September, would be picked from the Asokore-Mampong Municipality, a poor community, whiles the other beneficiaries would be picked from other areas in the Region after screening.

In all, a total of 8, 628 poor households in the Region are already benefitting from the programme and had been receiving cash every two months to make life comfortable for them.

Nana Oye, who was addressing the chiefs and people of Asokore-Mampong in Kumasi, at a presentation ceremony, said the move formed part of efforts to expand the programme for the benefit of the citizenry.

The presentation saw 250 flood victims in the recent flooding at Asokore-Mampong receiving a bag of rice, cooking oil, tinned tomatoes, blanket and mattress.

The items were jointly donated by the Ministry and Direct-Aid Ghana, a relief agency, to support the victims.

Nana Oye noted that, as one of the first countries to bring poverty down to the barest minimum per the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target, the government was committed to roll out pro-poor programmes to benefit the citizenry.

She said the government considered the welfare of children, the aged and vulnerable as a priority, and would, therefore, work assiduously to achieve its objectives.

Mr. Nuru Hamidan, the Asokore-Mampong Municipal Chief Executive, said the Assembly was seriously working on four thematic areas, namely, education, health, security and sanitation, to improve development of the sectors.

He appealed to the Ministry to assist the Assembly address issues bothering on women and children’s development for sustainable socio-economic growth.