An amount of GHC24 million has been saved on every payment made per term since the NDC government took over the School Feeding Programme in 2013.
This was disclosed by sector minister in charge of the School Feeding Programme, Nana Oye Lithur when her Ministry took its turn at the Meet -the -Press series in Accra on Tuesday.
Nana Oye Lithur hinted that since the ministerial responsibility of the Ghana National School Feeding Programme (GNSFP) following a Presidential directive on 4th August, 2015, it has worked to ensure that the programme becomes one of the successful social interventions in Ghana.
This is evident as currently Ghana’s school feeding programme has become the model for some countries, adding that a high powered delegation from Brazil’s School Feeding Centre of Excellence, Nepal, Nigeria, Lesotho, Namibia have engaged the Ministry to share in the best practices.
Nana Oye Lithur explained that the Programme continues to serve approximately 1.7 million pupils with one hot nutritious meal every School going day.
Outlining some of the initiatives conducted to boost the programme, the Gender Minister said, the Ministry has built the capacity of seven hundred and thirty-one (731) officers at national, regional and district levels on food and hygiene, health and nutrition
“We have paid outstanding debts to all caterers from 2014/2015 academic year to date amounting to GHC188,307,266.00. More so, we have enrolled 340,000 beneficiaries out of 1.7 million pupils onto the National Health Insurance free of charge” she noted.
Mrs. Lithur further stated that her Ministry has completed and currently implementing an independent operational Assessment of GSFP with support from UNICEF, World Bank,WFP in May, 2016.
A total of 10,913 farmers have been linked to the programme to market their local farm produce.
“For purposes of effective monitoring, the Ministry iImplemented Electronic Payment System for 5,370 caterers nationwide. Created ten (10) Regional database disaggregated by district, school, enrolment figures and caterers as well as procuring eleven vehicles for monitoring. Established the complaints management desk with a toll free number (0800688456) for case management
Projecting into the future, Nana Oye revealed that enrolment will be increased from 1.7million to 3 million pupils in 2017.
Also systems will be developed to verify enrolment of pupils and to address non-cooking and purchase biometric equipment for registration of pupils.
Mrs. Lithur also hinted that GSFP Policy and a new Caterer Contracting and Procurement Guidelines will be implemented as well as sensitize the public on the Guidelines.
She assured that a link will be established between the GSFP and local farmers to roll out the Agricultural Model.
The various directors at the Ministry were all in attendance and took turns to address issues relating to their sector that was posed during the Meet the Press session.
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