Govt settles GH¢188m debt to GSFP caterers

The government has settled an outstanding debt of GH¢188,307,266 it owed caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).

The amount covers the period 2014 to 2015.

The government is currently indebted to the over 5,370 caterers for only the third term of the 2015/2016 academic year.

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, announced this when she took her turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra yesterday, during which she briefed the media on the ministry’s work over the last four years, as well as the outlook for the coming years.

She also announced that 10,913 farmers had been linked to the GSFP and caterers could source farm produce from them.

She said the programme was working towards increasing school enrolment from 1.7 million to three million pupils by 2017.

Nana Oye said the ministry was currently implementing the recommendations of an independent operational assessment of the GSFP, with support from UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Food Programme.

Future outlook

On social development, the minister said an action plan was to be developed for the implementation of a National Social Protection Policy, adding that a Social Protection Bill was to be laid before Parliament soon to strengthen institutional arrangements for the effective and efficient management of social protection in the country.

Giving the ministry’s outlook for 2017, Nana Oye said it would extend the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to 350,000 households by December 2017.

Presently, she said, data collection was going on in the Upper West Region to register poor and vulnerable people onto the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR), which will serve as a single database for social protection implementation.

She said that would be followed by data collection in the Upper East and the Northern regions.

Medical/financial support

Nana Oye also hinted that the ministry would provide medical and financial support for 80 women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula — a condition some women face after protracted childbirth.

She said the ministry would also carry out nationwide sensitisation and training on the National Gender Policy, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She said the ministry’s budgetary allocation was not commensurate with the expansion of the scope of its mandate and called for immediate dialogue and harmonisation of some overlapping policies and programmes with other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh