The Finance Ministry says it has released GHc 44.9 million to settle arrears owed Senior High Schools across the country whose feeding grants have not been paid.
Of the said amount, over GHc35 million will be disbursed to schools in the three regions of the north to pay part of the debts owed them by government.
This comes at a time when hundreds of students especially in the three regions of the north, are reported to have been sent home due to government’s inability to pay the grants for the three terms.
[contextly_sidebar id=”zLj3DfCX88k0q96QPurKnC55O3ptr1cZ”]In a Citi News interview, the Director at the Scholarship Secretariat, Fuseini Lansah, said they will start disbursing the funds as soon as it hits their account.
“The Ministry of Finance has released money for us to pay first term of the academic year. It was released to us just two days ago. We will distribute it the moment it hits our account. We have processed the PVs for payments so the moment it reflects in our account we will invite the schools to come for the cheques. The Ministry is offering GHc44.9 million. It’s not only the three regions in the north, it’s for second cycleschools in general, but for the three regions in the north, we will require over GHc30 million.”
He said “about GHc 35 million” of that amount will be disbursed to schools in the northern part of the country while the rest is distributed to schools with scholarship beneficiaries.
Group threatens demo
A youth group in the Northern Region, the Progressive Youth Alliance, had earlier threatened a massive demonstration against the Mahama led administration if it does not immediately pay the feeding grants of students in schools in the north.
In a Citi News interview, a leader of the group, Latif Solomon indicated that his group and many others will carry out the threat of the demonstration if government does not pay the grant money by Friday, June 17.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin