School feeding: Arrears of caterers settled for 2nd and 3rd terms of 2022 – Ofori-Atta

Government has settled all arrears owed to caterers under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

The GSFP coverage also increased considerably from 1,671,777 beneficiaries in 2016 to 3,801,491 beneficiaries by June 2023 while school feeding grants cost per meal, per child has also been increased from GHS1.00 to GHS1.20 for the 2023 academic year.

Giving updates on the half-year performance of the identified social protection programmes, in his midyear budget review presentation before Parliament, Monday, 31 July 2023, Mr Ofori-Atta noted government continues to sustain social protection programmes to protect the poor and the vulnerable.

According to the Minister, “under the LEAP programme, Government disbursed a total of GHS169.95 million as at June 2023 to 346,019 households comprising 1,533,748 individuals. This includes the increase of the monthly grant to beneficiary households from GHS32.00 to GHS64.00 for one-member household and GHS38.00 to GHS76.00 for two-member households. Our target under this programme period is to reach about 8 percent of the population, that is 2.5million people.”

LEARN AND TRADE FOREX WITH GOLIGFX WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:

Mr Ofori-Atta noted: “We have also settled all arrears owed to caterers under the programme for the second and third terms of the 2022 academic year; and the first term of 2023.”

According to the Finance Minister, the Capitation Grant contributed to “increased enrolment in public basic schools from 6,048,897 pupils for the 2021/2022 academic year to 6,114,302 pupils for the 2022/2023 academic year.

“Under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS)/Technical and Vocational Education and Training (Free TVET) programmes, a total of 447,396 first-year students enrolled during the 2022/2023 academic year to bring the total number of Free SHS/TVET beneficiaries to 1,318,035 students.”

Also, “Government continued with the construction of 9 state-of-the-art TVET centres to offer modern facilities and equipment, enable effective skills training and empower young people with the relevant skills required for employment and entrepreneurship.

“Under our Complementary Education for underprivileged groups, including out-of-school children, Government commenced the implementation of Cycle 8 of the Complementary Basic Education Programme (CBEP) in February 2023, with a total enrolment of 5,000 learners as at end June 2023”.

Source: classfmonline.com