The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Management Secretariat, and the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP), have organised a workshop to discuss payment arrangements with the Payment Service Provider of the LEAP programme.

The two entities, under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, held a four-day workshop in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), to build broader understanding and enhanced management of the GPSNP contract.

The GPSNP aims at strengthening and improving social safety nets and productive inclusion of the poor and the vulnerable.

It also intends to contribute towards Government’s objective of improving the livelihoods of poor households by harnessing investments in the social protection sector to support the households to smoothen consumption and better access to social services that promote their productivity and improve their access to jobs.

The project was implemented by the two Ministries in 2019 with funding from the World Bank, Department for International Development and the Government of Ghana.

The LEAP programme is a cash transfer programme introduced by the Government of Ghana in 2008, for extremely poor and vulnerable households, including; orphaned and vulnerable children, persons with severe disability without any productive capacity and elderly persons who are 65 years.

Mr Myles Ongoh, the Head of the LEAP Programme, said the workshop would afford stakeholders the opportunity to understand the nuances of the contract and assist them to unearth some unforeseen anomalies, which could be assessed and factored into the contract and urged participants to contribute effectively towards the LEAP payment process.

Mr Vincent Asare Boateng, Business Development Officer, GhIPSS, said though the previous payment process had challenges initially, they had been able to deliver creditably through the support of all stakeholders and called for more proposals to improve on their services.

Dr. George Kwadwo Osei Ababio, the National Coordinator, GPSNP-MLGRD, commended the Bank of Ghana and GhIPSS for efforts in ensuring that beneficiaries were duly paid under the programme.

He said the new system enabled them to pay 33,000 beneficiaries from 340 communities in 80 districts from the office, adding that, the programme had currently paid about GHS28 million to beneficiaries.

Mrs Stella Mawutor, the Volta Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, who chaired the workshop, charged the stakeholders to work assiduously to enhance the lots of the vulnerable.