By Deborah Asantewaah SARFO
SEND Ghana has urged the government to set firm deadlines to fully implement reassessments of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) to curb wasteful expenditure and ensure the programme’s sustainability.
According to the group, the lack of enforcement of the LEAP assessments by the successive government despite it being a requite of the programme is making it difficult to graduate beneficiaries who no longer do not meet the requirements of the programme.
The 2022 Auditor-General’s report indicates that the government’s failure to carry out these assessments resulted in improper payments, totalling GH¢396,620, to beneficiaries who no longer qualify for the programme.
“The government must establish clear and strict deadlines for the full implementation of these reassessments to prevent wasteful expenditures, improve programme coverage and ensure its sustainability,” SEND Ghana stated.
Additionally, they noted that in 2024, the reassessments were conducted in 10 districts in the Northern Region, with plans for further assessments in the remaining part of the country yet it has not taken place.
They outlined this issue in a press statement highlighting their preliminary assessment of some selected sectors of the 2025 Budget Statement. The sectors include social protection, healthcare, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), education, and water, sanitation and hygiene.
However, they have commended the government for not just continuing the programme but indexing it to inflation, increasing the number of households from 350,000 to 400,000 from July 2025; and increasing the allocation by 30.8 percent from GH¢728.8million to GH¢953.5million in 2025.
Based on the mandate of the National Development Planning Commission to include the poor and vulnerable in national planning and development, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme – a cash transfer programme – was introduced by the Government of Ghana (GOG) in 2008 for extremely poor and vulnerable households.
The main objective of the LEAP Programme is to reduce poverty by increasing and smoothening consumption and promoting access to services and opportunities among the extremely poor and vulnerable.
The LEAP reassessment programme aims to update beneficiary information, address the inclusion or exclusion of errors and ensure funds reach the most vulnerable.
Another issue under social protection raised in SEND Ghana’s 2025 budget analysis is the School Feeding Programme, where they have asked the government to increase the school feeding grant and index it against inflation to prevent depreciation and ensure sustained impact similar to LEAP.
With healthcare, they identified some gaps and have advised the government to increase the amount to the NHIF, ensure the early and consistent disbursement of National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) funds, create a dedicated pool of resources for epidemic preparedness research, education/sensitisation, effective monitoring, evaluation and capacity building of health personnel.
On matters of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), they described the government’s allocation of GH¢292.4million for free sanitary pads in public and basic schools as a positive step.
Additionally, it urged the government to extend the initiative to cover the marginalised, out-of-school and those in apprenticeship who equally face challenges related to menstrual health.
