Mr. Ofori-Atta announced this information while presenting the 2023 Mid-Year Budget review in Parliament on Monday, July 31. He also assured that the government is dedicated to maintaining social protection programs to safeguard the welfare of the underprivileged.
“We have settled all arrears owed to caterers under the School Feeding Programme, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.
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“Under the Ghana School Feeding Programme, coverage increased considerably from 1,671,777 beneficiaries in 2016 to 3,801,491 beneficiaries by June 2023. The feeding grants cost per meal, per child, per day increased from GH¢1.00 to GH¢1.20 for the 2023 academic year.
“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,” he said.
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“Under the LEAP programme, Government disbursed a total of GH¢169.95 million as of June 2023 to 346,019 households comprising 1,533,748 individuals. This includes the increase of the monthly grant to beneficiary households from GH¢32.00 to GH¢64.00 for one-member household and GH¢38.00 to GH¢76.00 for two-member households. Our target under this programme period is to reach about 8 percent of the population, that is 2.5 million people,” he added.
In response to the government’s failure to pay their dues and raise the payment per child from 97 pesewas to GH¢3.50, the caterers declared a national strike on April 27. They firmly stated that they would not be swayed by mere hollow promises this time.
