In line with government’s pledge to support the recent flood victims with some cash amounts to cushion them, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has started paying emergency Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) allowances to affected victims.

In all a total of 9,000 affected households in the Greater Accra, Volta, Western, Central and Ashanti regions will benefit from the emergency LEAP for the next three months, with each household receiving Gh?300.00. Government has pumped in approximately GH?4 million towards the exercise.

At a monitoring exercise to supervise the payment of the emergency LEAP at Odawna in Accra last Friday, Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection,hinted that in the Greater Accra Region, a total of 6,131 people will benefit from the emergency LEAP.

Breaking down the figures, she said about 1,277 beneficiaries will be paid in Odawna, 433 in Gbegbeyise, 681 in Glefe, 802 in Osu, 910 in Ashaiman, 657 in Teshie, 835 in Tema,438 in Nungua, 170 in Kaneshie and 318 in Adenta.

Addressing the beneficiaries who had queued to take their emergency LEAP for the first month, Nana Oyesaid the payment was in fulfillment of governments pledge to the affected victims of the recent floods.

“Today government of Ghana is distributing the allowances, the president HIS Excellency John Dramani Mahama was here, and we said the LEAP we pay to vulnerable people, we will pay some of the monies to affected victims”, she said.

She further explained that the emergency cash transfer is being done electronically to avoid long queues in the sun.

“In all a total of 6,131 households will benefit from the emergency LEAP. For three months each household will receive Gh?300.00 which will be disbursed, Gh?100.00 a month through E-zwich payment”, she said.

“For the next two months, your monies will be loaded electronically by the Interbank Payment settlement system (GhIPSS) on the cards for you and you will receive notifications to go to the various banks to get your cash”, she advised.

She appealed to the many beneficiaries to be patient with the banks in charge of disbursing the monies. The payment of the emergency LEAP is a follow up on the June 3 disaster which swept away lives and property. Nana Oye together with the First Lady, Lordina Mahama visited the victims and promised them of emergency LEAP.

Again, the Minister assured the affected victims that her ministry will engage the services of the National Health Insurance Authority to provide registration for victims whose cards were swept away by the floods.

“Your Assemblyman has hinted us that most of you have lost your National Health cards in the flood. We will engage the NHIA Authorities and we are sure they will oblige to come and register you all, so you can get new Insurance cards”, she added.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has already presented the victims with rice, cooking oil, mattresses and blankets to persons affected by the floods in Keta, Osu and Asokore-Mampong in the Ashanti Region. NADMO estimate that the June 3 Disaster affected 30,688 persons.