The government has released GH¢82 million for the payment of arrears owed caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
The National Coordinator of the GSFP, Mr Seidu Adamu, who announced this at a GSFP/Hershey Energising Learning Nutrition Project workshop in Kumasi yesterday, said the money, which was in the GSFP’s account, was to settle arrears owed caterers across the country up to the second quarter of this year.
He, therefore, urged the caterers to exercise restraint as the money was being disbursed to the various regions and districts.
Project
The workshop was used to launch the pilot of the Energising Learning Nutrition Project in the Ashanti Region.
The project, which is a collaboration between the GSFP and the Hershey Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturing Company based in the USA, involves the introduction and distribution of highly fortified groundnut nutritional supplement to some selected schoolchildren in six districts in the Ashanti and Northern regions.
The nutritional supplement will be produced by Project Peanuts Butter Company at Daban in Kumasi.
The venture is expected to generate more revenue for the country’s groundnut farmers.
The Energising Learning Nutrition Project seeks to increase school enrolment and retention, improve learning abilities and capabilities of children and ensure improved student population and increased knowledge.
The beneficiary districts are Bosomtwe, Kwabre East and Afigya Sekyere in the Ashanti Region and Tolon, Karaga and the Tamale metropolis in the Northern Region.
The pilot programme has begun in Kwabre East, while that for the remaining five districts will be rolled out in September this year.
Between 50,000 and 100,000 schoolchildren in the selected districts will receive the food supplement daily.
Mr Adamu said after two years of successful piloting in the six districts, it would be extended to the remaining districts across the country.
He debunked the speculation that the school feeding programme was collapsing, saying the International Monetary Fund (IMF) package for the country had rather strengthened the programme, as it is a social intervention.
Increased funding
Mr Adamu announced that the government had agreed to increase the feeding rate from 50Gp per child to 80Gp with effect from July this year.
Regional Coordinator
The Ashanti Regional Coordinator of the GSFP, Ms Ophelia Antwi-Boasiako, talked about nutritional challenges facing the schoolchildren and said the situation had led to health problems, including obesity, eating disorders, dental caries and anaemia.
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Credit: Graphic Online