The Deputy National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Mr. Acquah Kwadwo Abass has applauded the efforts of the Government of Ghana in sustaining and expanding the Programme to reach more children from deprived schools in the country.
He was particularly impressed with how the Government has in the midst of the global economic crisis increased the daily feeding grant per child and also increased the number of beneficiaries from the 1.6 million it inherited in 2017 to more than 4 million beneficiaries presently.
According to Mr. Kwadwo Abass, the Government also deserved applause for using the flagship social intervention programme to create employment opportunities for over 45,000 caterers and cooks working in 11,000 basic schools across all the 16 regions of Ghana. That notwithstanding, the caterers contracted by the Programme, he indicated, are also mandated to source about 80% of their food items from the local farmers in their localities to empower them [local farmers] economically.
The Deputy National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme made the remarks at the National Secretariat of GSFP when he was addressing a strong delegation from Cameroon to understudy how the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is being implemented in Ghana.
The six member Cameroonian delegation, was accompanied by some top officials of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Ghana, and was received by Mr. Kwadwo Abass and the Director of Operations, Mrs. Doris Gaba on behalf of the National Coordinator, Hajia Safia Mohammed.
Mr. Kwadwo Abass indicated that, the Government of Ghana had been deliberate in its investments in the School Feeding Programme to improve on the health and nutrition of the beneficiary pupils, increase school enrolment, attendance and retention. He said that the Government is also working through the office of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to fully digitalize the school feeding programme to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability.
“Government of Ghana at the moment pays Ghc1.50 per every child per day per meal; and when you multiply that amount of money by the total number of beneficiary pupils [four million] per day and also multiply that by the number of school days in an academic term, you will appreciate the Government for spending such a huge amount of money to building the human capital of this nation”.
Mr. Kwadwo Abass on the other hand admitted that the implementation of the Ghana School Feeding Programme was faced with some challenges including delay in the payment of arrears to caterers due to the general economic difficulties in the country. He however assured of the Government’s ongoing efforts to partner with the World Bank and other stakeholders to address the challenges.
The Cameroonian delegation was taken through some PowerPoint presentations by the Operations Directorate, the Monitoring and Evaluations Directorate and the Nutrition and Agric Units of the GSFP to equip them with the needed information on how the Programme is being run in Ghana.
The leader of the Cameroonian delegation, Madam Assana Moudoum Bahama applauded the Management of Ghana School Feeding Programme, the Government of Ghana, the collaborating Ministries and development partners for making the Programme so impactful and beneficial to millions of deprived children in Ghana.
She also applauded the Government of Ghana for the huge investment towards sustaining the feeding programme. Madam Bahama commended the GSFP Management for selflessly sharing with them all the detailed information, programmes, activities and the best practices on how to sustain, expand and improve on the Programme.
She encouraged the Government of Ghana to keep investing in the future of the children. Saying, “with what we have heard so far, we can say that the money the Ghana Government is spending on the children is not a waste but an investment in their future”.
Meanwhile, the visit by Cameroonian officials was preceded by a similar visit by some officials from the Parliament of Uganda who were also in Ghana some few months ago to learn about Ghana’s best practices as far as the implementation of the school feeding programme is concerned.