The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced an expansion of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to cover the extremely poor by 2024.

Delivering the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Monday, July 31, Mr Ofori-Atta noted this is in line with government's tradition of compassion and care for the underprivileged.

“Furthermore, the coverage of LEAP will be expanded, and its targeting improved to cover the extreme poor by 2024,” he said.

According to the Finance Minister "Our target under this programme period is to reach about 8 percent of the population, that is 2.5 million people."

He added that an indexation mechanism for benefits under the LEAP programme will be put in place by end-September 2023.

He further noted that social spending on health, social protection, and education will be closely monitored to ensure timely disbursement of funds to beneficiaries.

In the 2023 budget, the government made specific provisions for doubling the LEAP payment per beneficiary household from ¢45 per month to ¢90 with progressive increase in the number of beneficiary households from the current 344,185 households.

Mr Ofori-Atta also announced that government will increase the budgetary allocation for the School Feeding Programme to compensate for the higher cost of meals and also to ensure a more efficient management of the programme.

Again, it will increase the Capitation Grant over time as part of measures to improve foundational learning.

Reading the mid-year budget to highlight what has been achieved, he noted that "Under the Ghana School Feeding Programme, coverage increased considerably from 1,671,777 beneficiaries in 2016 to 3,801,491 beneficiaries by June 2023. The feeding grants cost per meal, per child, per day increased from GH¢1.00 to GH¢1.20 for the 2023 academic year. We have also settled all arrears owed to caterers under the programme for the second and third terms of the 2022 academic year; and the first term of 2023."

He added that "the Capitation Grant contributed to increased enrolment in public basic schools
from 6,048,897 pupils for the 2021/2022 academic year to 6,114,302 pupils for the 2022/2023 academic year."

Under the LEAP programme, the government disbursed a total of GH¢169.95 million as of June 2023 to 346,019 households comprising 1,533,748 individuals.

This includes the increase of the monthly grant to beneficiary households from GH¢32.00 to GH¢64.00 for one-member household and GH¢38.00 to GH¢76.00 for two-member households.