Benjamin Akoto, GNA
Oboadaka (E/R),
October 14, GNA – Government is to roll out the Ghana National Productive
Safety Network (GNPSN) programme to support abled vulnerable people.
Under the programme,
individuals who are on the various social protection intervention programmes
and are abled, would be accessed and exited to join the GNPSN programme.
The beneficiaries
would then be given skill trainings and supported with funds to start their own
business or expand their business to ensure that they take care of themselves
and their dependents and be self-reliant.
The programme, which
is being sponsored by the World Bank, would be managed by the Ministry of
Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Ministry of Local Government and
Rural Development.
The Deputy Minister
for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Gifty Twum- Ampofo said this in
an interview with the media at the disbursement of livelihood Empowerment
Against Poverty (LEAP) payment to 232 beneficiaries from Oboadaka, Otopayaw and
Pokrom in the Akuapem South District of the Eastern Region.
She expressed the hope
that by the end of the year, funds from the World Bank would be made available
to the country for the programme to start.
Ms Twum-Ampofo said
the LEAP had seen an increase and about 50 per cent of the vulnerable people
have been enrolled unto the programme.
She noted that in the
Eastern Region alone, about 30 to 35 per cent increment had been realized in
terms of beneficiaries.
She said it was the
hope of the Ministry that within the shortest possible time, some of the
beneficiaries would be graduated to a ‘’LEAP Exit Plan’’ so that they would be
supported to be self-reliant to coincide with the Ghana National Productive
Safety Network programme.
Ms Twum-Ampofo said
the unwillingness of individual caregivers to disclose the names of people who
are qualified to be deleted from the system in other to enrol many more unto
the systems had been some of the challenges hindering the progress of the
system.
She said the
inaccessibility of some of the communities to get their payments to them
electronically due to lack of electricity and some beneficiaries traveling for
more than five kilometres to access their cash transfer, have also been
identified as challenges, explaining that “the system do not want the
beneficiaries to travel long distances just to take their monies”.
The LEAP in 2008 has a
total of 1,654 households enrolled unto the initiative and increased to 2,013
in 2017, however, currently, a total of 4,000 households are benefiting from
the program.
GNA