Government will from next week start paying caterers of the School Feeding Programme the arrears for the third term of the 2022 academic year, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Lariba Zuweira Abudu, has announced.
She explained that the programme had been bogged down with some challenges and all the necessary steps were being taken to address them to make the system more efficient.
Speaking at the bi-weekly Minister’s briefing in Accra yesterday, Ms Abudu said files for 11,052 caterers had been cleared for payment, adding that “some caterers did not cook during the third term of the 2022 academic year and will not be paid.”
However, she explained that 76 caterers had their payment pending as a result of challenges with their ezwich cards. “All should note that caterers under the programme are paid based on number of days cooked within a term. Caterer arrears are being compiled and will be resolved. A software has been developed to manage the GSFP data,” she stressed.
She further announced that the government would, in the coming days, rollout a digital platform to capture a complete data of all School Feeding Caterers and their activities, adding that the digitalisation of the system formed part of broad measures adopted by the government to restructure the whole programme to ensure efficiency in the services provided.
In addition, it is to promote transparency and accountability in the intervention and also eliminate or reduce corruption in the processes to the barest minimum.
Ms Abudu noted that the programme currently provided employment for 34,350 caterers and cooks, especially women who generated income to enable them take care of their families.
Furthermore, she explained that the programme had created a ready market for local farmers thus boosting the local economy, stressing that “the programme is currently running an electronic monitoring system which provides real time data to enhance programme delivery.”
Ms Abudu said the programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance had paid for the first and second term arrears of the 2022 academic year.
She said the ministry had also taken steps to ensure that Persons with Disability were given licenses to drive their own vehicles.
She said the processes were far advanced and would be launched soon.
Touching on social protection, she said LEAP beneficiaries were over 1.5 million and the ministry had cleared the 2022 arrears under the programme.
She said payment for first cycle 2023 would be done next week, adding that the “Government has doubled the amount for beneficiaries. Pilot reassessment has been carried out in six regions (UER, UWR, SR, NR and NER).”
Ms Abudu said persons accused of witchcraft in the five camps of the Northern and North East regions had been included to benefit from the LEAP cash grant.
“Persons affected by leprosy in the Weija Leprosarium and other five camps (UER, UWR, ER, VR and CR) have also been included in the LEAP Programme,” she concluded.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
