[ 2012-07-09 ]

Expanding LEAP doesn’t mean Better Ghana agenda has failed – Asaga
Increasing the number of beneficiary households
and the amount of money given under the Livelihood
Empowerment Against Poverty programme does not
mean the government’s Better Ghana agenda has not
achieve great things, Employment Minister Moses
Asaga has said.

Government has announced it is increasing the
amount per household from GH¢12 to GH¢36 a month
as well as the beneficiary households which
currently stand at 68,000 to about 200,000 by
2015.

The decision has prompted questions as to whatever
happened to the agenda to create a Better Ghana in
which citizens create wealth for themselves.

But Mr Asaga says the questions are misplaced.

“As much as we are developing the middle class, as
much as the economy is growing, as much as the GDP
is expanding, we know there are people who are
slipping down ad it they that we want to cover. So
doing a LEAP does not mean that we haven’t
achieved a lot in developing the economy and
creating jobs. The LEAP is now to target [the most
vulnerable]. If someone is 65 years old, he is no
longer capable of working and he is in the rural
area, you need to give that person a smile on the
face,” he explained.

NDC makes U-turn
The LEAP Programme was introduced in 2008 by the
previous Kufuor administration where “orphaned and
vulnerable children, the extremely poor who are
above 65 years and persons with severe
disabilities without productivity capacity - are
given grants which range between GH¢8 and GH¢15 at
pay points, in their respective districts every
two months.”

Opposition parties then, including the now
governing National Democratic Congress condemned
the programme as unsustainable and a vote buying
gimmick.

Ms Hanna Tetteh, Communications Director of then
candidate Mills’ campaign team, said the NDC did
not consider the programme in its 2008 elections
manifesto because it was ill-thought through.

She said instead of a LEAP programme, the NDC
intended to establish a more viable programme that
would make people more productive and
self-reliant.

“The programme is not sustainable in a long term;
we have a series of initiatives that are meant to
help people list themselves out of poverty…we have
a situation where still to a large extent we are
donor dependent and where exactly are we going to
be able to get the resources to continue with this
kind of handout”? she argued.

But upon assumption of office, the NDC government
continued with the policy and is now expanding
it.
Asked by Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host Kojo
Oppong-Nkrumah Monday, how Ghanaians could be sure
that the programme was not just a conduit to doll
out money to party cronies, the Employment
Minister said “Well, I was not privy to kind of
discussion, I don’t remember that discussion but
all I can say is that poverty knows no boundaries,
poverty doesn’t care whether you are NPP, NDC, PPP
etc”.

He insisted the programme was devoid of politics.

The Communications Director of the New Patriotic
Party, Nana Akomea said it was gratifying that the
NDC government had seen reason to continue with
the programme despite condemning whilst in
opposition.

He said even though arguments about the
sustainability of the programme were persuasive,
there were many vulnerable people whose suffering
could not be ignored.

Source - Joy News

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