The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dakoa Newman, has assured beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program that the payment of their cash grants will no longer be delayed.

This assurance follows delays in disbursement for two payment periods.

Madam Newman who gave the assurance at a news conference, also announced an increase in cash grants for beneficiary households under the program.

She noted that the increased amount will take effect from July 1, with payments made bi-monthly, adding that payments will be effected every two months.

“Looking at how much is being paid now for July, that amount of money would have catered for the four months that was January, February, March, and April, which means the next time we would have had to make payments will be in July. 

“But this money that is being paid is catering for just January and February and it took a lot of time to come to this final decision,” she said.

Madam Newman highlighted the extensive stakeholder engagements and education sensitisation efforts that informed the decision due to the state of the economy.

“Now that this amount has been committed to, we are assuring the general public that we will not be defaulting on any payments going forward,” the Minister added.

The Okaikwei South MP also noted that a reassessment is being conducted on beneficiaries of the program to ensure adequate disbursement.

She emphasised the importance of cash grants in supporting health, education, and other essential needs.

“Looking at the inflation that we have experienced and looking at the amount of monies that they have been collecting over the period and looking at what we expect them to use the money for, we needed to ensure that we are achieving - it's not about just giving a cash grant - they are given a cash grant because we want them to be able to use it for health reasons for them to use it to keep their children in school. 

“There are so many things which they are supposed to use it for and if the money you are given doesn't meet the reason why you are giving it to them - even though you're giving them money, you're not going to get the benefits or the impact and so the money is being scaled up to ensure that we as a country get the benefits that we need from this LEAP program,” she said.

Madam Newman clarified that, regarding the LEAP program, her department currently caters to 1.4 million out of the 2.4 million eligible individuals, leaving one million not being supported.

This, she said underscores the need for reassessment to graduate those who no longer need assistance and include those who do.

“When you look at the parameters there's some for the aged over 65 who don't have anybody taking care of them. Some of them die over the period and so this reassessment is very important because it ensures that the right people are getting it and people are graduated from being extremely poor to being able to take care of the home,” she added.