Govt releases GH¢28m to School Feeding programme
The government has released GH¢28 million to the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to settle part of its outstanding indebtedness to 5,000 caterers across the country.
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The GSFP has started electronic disbursement of the money, which will cover the feeding fees for 20 days of the second term of the 2015/2016 academic year.
The Public Relations Officer of the GSFP, Mr Siiba Alfa, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Thursday that the GSFP was yet to pay the feeding fees of outstanding 40 days for the second term and about 30 days for the third term of the 2015/2016 academic year.
He said the release of the GH¢28 million, which was the sixth of such releases to the GSFP this year, brought the total amount released this year to GH¢200 million, covering 150 days.
The GSFP was introduced in 2005 to provide one square meal a day for pupils in basic public schools. There are currently 1.7 million pupils benefiting from the programme.
Initially, the programme was anchored on support from donor partners, but it is now solely funded by the government.
As a result, the GSFP is plagued with delays in getting releases from the government to pay school feeding fees to the 5,000 caters providing services under the programme.
Government's commitment
Mr Alfa said the recent releases of money by the government to the GSFP, totalling GH¢200 million, was unprecedented.
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"Government has shown that it is committed to sustaining the programme. We (the GSFP) are satisfied with the strong will of the government to consistently pay the caterers," he said.
Regular feeding for children
Mr Alfa said with the consistent payment of feeding fees, caterers did not have any excuse to suspend cooking for the pupils.
Besides, he said, the payments encouraged caterers to provide quality meals to the pupils.
"When payments delay, caters use it as a pretext to provide substandard food. With the fast-track payments, caters won't have any excuse. They will provide consistent services on every school day," he said.