The Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association says 98 percent of its members have received full payment for the second term of the 2021 academic year.
The payment comes after caterers across the country in the last few months complained about the arrears owed them by the government.
Speaking to Citi News the Public Relations Officer for the Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association, Caroline Aboagye called on the government to ensure the arrears for the third term academic year are also settled.
“98% of caterers who had approval from the Ghana School Feeding Program have received their money. The two percent who have not received their monies have mismatched names and mixed E-zwich numbers.”
“Those are the only few who have not received their money for the second term of the 2021 academic year. We will still plead with the government and the Secretariat to speed up things for us to receive the third term payments to enable us to work diligently”, she said.
In September 2021, the Finance Ministry released GH¢31 million to pay arrears owed school feeding caterers in the various regions.
“I am happy to announce that payments have been made to caterers in all the regions. It is true that caterers in the Western and Western North were not paid due to insufficient funds. That has been resolved. The Ministry of Finance has released GHS 31 million for the payment of caterers”, President Akufo-Addo revealed.
It came after some aggrieved caterers working under the Programme threatened to stop cooking for students if the government fails to increase the feeding grant to GH¢3 per head.
The caterers said the GH¢1.00 allocated to children under the programme is woefully inadequate and unfair.
Ghana School Feeding Programme
The Ghana School Feeding Programme is an initiative of the comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme Pillar 3, which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
The government currently provides GH¢1 per day for a plate of food for a child.
The amount is considered inadequate to provide an adequate and healthy diet for child development.
