Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection has visited selected registration centres in the Northern Region to monitor the ongoing Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) reassessment and onboarding exercise
The visit, which took the Minister to three districts in the region namely Sagnarigu, Savelugu and Kumbungu, formed part of a nationwide monitoring exercise to assess operations at registration centres, engage beneficiaries and stakeholders, and ensure the smooth implementation of government’s plan to enrol 400,000 additional beneficiary households onto the LEAP programme.
Dr Lartey during the visit, said the field monitoring exercise, would enable the Ministry to assess operational efficiency at registration centres, ensure that vulnerable applicants were treated with dignity, identify operational challenges requiring immediate intervention, and strengthen collaboration with stakeholders.
She explained that the nationwide reassessment was intended to improve the integrity of the LEAP database by updating household information, removing ghost beneficiaries and ensuring that support reached genuinely eligible households including extremely poor families, older persons without support, persons with severe disabilities and vulnerable children.
She said the reassessment would further reduce inclusion and exclusion errors, enhance transparency in the management of public resources, and create opportunities for households that had become economically resilient to graduate from the programme to make way for others in greater need.
Dr Lartey said the expanded LEAP programme would help reduce extreme poverty through regular cash transfers, promote school enrolment, improve access to healthcare and National Health Insurance Scheme services, and stimulate local rural economies through increased household spending.
She added that the ongoing onboarding exercise was leveraging biometric technology and digital payment systems including e-zwich and mobile financial services to improve efficiency and promote financial inclusion amongst previously unbanked beneficiaries.
She cautioned against extortion during the registration exercise, stressing that the process was completely free of charge.
She said no official, community leader or intermediary had been authorised to charge fees for registration, transportation or issuance of payment cards warning that anyone found engaging in such illegal practices would be arrested and prosecuted.
Dr Lartey urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Assembly Members, traditional authorities, civil society organisations and community leaders to intensify public education and support beneficiary mobilisation to ensure that all eligible households were successfully enrolled.
She encouraged beneficiaries to report cases of misconduct, extortion or operational challenges through the Ministry’s toll-free hotlines or designated grievance redress desks reaffirming.
She reaffirmed the government’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and dignity in the delivery of social protection services.
Mr Abdulai Imoro Gong, Sagnarigu Municipal Chief Executive, who was represented at the event, said the municipality had recorded a significant increase in LEAP coverage following the reassessment with the number of potential beneficiary households increasing from 1,476 across 25 communities to 6,018 households in 64 communities.
He identified transportation difficulties to hard-to-reach communities, network connectivity challenges, delays in beneficiary verification and the need for sustained public sensitisation as some of the operational challenges confronting the onboarding exercise and pledged the Assembly’s continued support to ensure its successful implementation.