Stéphane Roudet, the IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, has described the country’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme as “very effective.”
Introduced in 2008 by the Government of Ghana, the LEAP Programme is a cash transfer programme made to persons in extreme poverty.
It is aimed at reducing poverty by increasing and smoothening consumption and promoting access to services and opportunities among the extremely poor and vulnerable.
According to Mr Roudet, the programme is one of Ghana’s social interventions that is doing very well. He told Bernard Avle in an interview on the Point of View on Citi TV on Monday that the IMF has had discussions with the government on how to increase the benefits of the programme.
“In the 2023 budget, there was a significant increase in the level of benefits for the LEAP programme. We consider this programme as a very effective one and so we discussed with the authorities how to make sure that we reserve in the context of the budget the resources needed to increase the level of benefits,” Mr Roudet said.