The Communications Officer of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Edmund Gyebi, has disclosed that government is making efforts and has released some amount of money for the arrears of some of the school feeding caterers to be paid.

Reacting to the threats by the caterers to stop cooking till their arrears are settled, Mr. Gyebi intimated that some of them will be settled starting today, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. “They have given us the assurance that within a week, the remaining amount will be released.”

Edmond Gyebi noted that School feeding caterers in some regions across the country will be receiving parts of their arrears with payment starting from regions that have lower school enrolment and lower amounts.

“We are going to start payment from today. These are Savannah, Volta, Western North, Oti, Bono, Ahafa, Bono East and North-East regions. The government has given us an amount of GHS50 million out of the over GHS238 million.

“We are paying some regions and leaving others because of the amount we have received now. We are paying 68 cooking days which forms the third term of 2021 academic year.”
Edmund Gyebi

The Communications officer attested to the fact that the monies being paid to these caterers is not enough. He added that it’s for this reason that they have made proposals to increase it for the caterers. This, he believes, government will consider.

“When it comes to the issue of delay, currently, government is challenged financially and it has affected our caterers too. So, we always want to appeal to them to continue to bare with us. We know it’s not going to be permanent and things will turn around . So, they should forgive us and we are working together so they understand the system.”
Edmund Gyebi

According to Edmund Gyebi, even before the appointment of caterers, they were made aware that sometimes it will be difficult pulling the money from government, so some of them must also have that financial strength in difficult times to carry on with the programme.

“We have to understand the system and the challenges. It’s a global thing and not just a challenge here. We are all going through this struggle.”
Edmund Gyebi

school feeding 1 — Caterer dishing out food to school kids

School feeding, a priority

Edmund Gyebi intimated that feeding the students is a matter of priority and has not been neglected as it looks. According to him, the School Feeding Programme is on the heart of government.

“It’s a very important programme for the nation and government has done so much for school feeding. We have sustained it since 2005. The money we are talking about is not small money and we need GHS234 million every term or more to pay caterers and it doesn’t come easy.”
Edmund Gyebi

Mr. Gyebi warned that those who do not cook on certain days will be deducted because they did not work on those days.

“Any caterer who has not cooked, there will be a deduction on his/her money. We call it non-cooking-days. All the days that they did not cook, trust me, they will be deducted from their monies.”
Edmund Gyebi

This came after the Greater Accra Regional School Feeding Caterers Association on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 held a press conference to react to the unpaid arrears and how it was affecting their work. They threatened not to cook for the pupils should the government refuse to release funds for the payments.