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From today, beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) would be smiling following the release of GH�2,700,000 by government for disbursement to households covered by the programme. The six-month arrears payments of November 2010 to April, 2011 will benefit 40,064 households. William Niyuni, Assistant Director in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation of LEAP, who made these known to the Times in Accra, attributed the accumulation of arrears to delays in release of funds but said the situation had been rectified and �this would put back smiles in the faces of beneficiaries.� Mr. Niyuni said the payment would cover three phases of November - December 2010, January - February and March - April, 2011. He said a household would receive between GH�8 and GH� 15 explaining that a beneficiary of a household would receive GH�8 while two beneficiaries of a household would receive GH� 10 with three beneficiaries taking to GH�12. Four beneficiaries of a household would have GH�15. According to Mr. Niyuni, the programme which began in March 2008, with only 1,654 households in 21 districts had been expanded to cover 55,000 households. He said 100 districts in all the ten regions were now benefitting from the programme adding that all districts in the Upper East and West regions where poverty was endemic were covered. Giving a breakdown for other regions, he said 10 districts; each were benefitting from the programme in Ashanti, Central, Eastern and Volta region, respectively and nine, eight and seven districts in the Greater Accra, Brong-Ahafo and Western regions respectively. For the Northern Region, Mr. Niyuni said that except the Tamale metropolis, all the 19 Municipal and district Assemblies were beneficiaries. Asked whether the programme was making the desired impact of reducing poverty, especially at the rural level, Mr. Niyuni said that though the department was expected to carry out an impact evaluation next year on the programme, it is monitoring from the regions and districts showed that households that could not make ends meet were now meeting their basic needs.