The government has released about GH400 million to clear outstanding arrears owed suppliers and caterers under the School Feeding Programme.
The amount covered the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic year.
The Public Relations Officer of the programme, Siiba Alfa who disclosed these to The Ghanaian Times on the sidelines at the launch of the national School Feeding Policy in Accra, said steps were being taken to pay about GH89million to the caterers for the 2016 third term which ends in August.
Launching the policy, Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection said the programme fed about 1.7 million pupils in 4,877 public schools in 2016 districts.
She said government intends to increase enrolment to three million by 2020.
Mrs. Lithur said the policy targeted four objectives to provide sustainable social development support to children in deprived communities, promotion by local authorities, community’s and stakehodlers.
Other objectives were fostering local economic development through capacity support for local enterprises involved and strengthening collaboration between national and sub-national actors in implementing the School Feeding Programme.
Mrs. Lithur said the policy sought to consolidate the gains made under the Millennium Development Goals now Sustainable Development Goals of the united Nationals.
She said so far more than 224,000 pupils had been registered under the national Health Scheme and hoped to register the remaining 1.5 million school children by December 2016.
To further strengthen the school feeding policy, the sector minister said a draft bill had been submitted to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for review and consideration.
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