The gap between the rich and the poor in Ghana keeps widening due to lack of inclusive development.

This is according to the latest statistics by UNICEF.

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This is despite a drop in the poverty level from over 70% to 44% in the Upper East Region from 2006 to 2013, and from 56% to 50% in the Northern Region within the same period.

The Vice President of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr. Esther Ofei Aboage told Accra-based Citi FM that government must continue to invest in social protection programmes to help eradicate poverty.

“One out of eight households eligible for LEAP is receiving the cash. We need to upscale extensively the same way we need to upscale school feeding extensively.”

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She added that the government must also ensure that beneficiaries of the social protection programmes are equipped to eventually become self-dependent.

“We need to also build in the linkages with these initiatives as the labour intensive public works policy but most importantly we have to make the necessary physical space”

“We need to make sure that we can feed our own children so that we don’t depend on development partner sources for these interventions and programmes and otherwise the reliability of these transfers I mean you do something and it’s a good thing and the next day there’s no money for it and that willnot sustain the momentum that we want we want to draw attention to it we want to encourage our government to prioritize and continue to fund these interventions,” she added.