Govt 'deceived' us, less than 5% of us got 'paltry' stimulus package – GNAPS

The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has said it feels deceived by the government as far as a promise to give its members a stimulus package is concerned.

The Public Relations Officer of GNAPS, Fred Kwabena Asare, told Kwabena Prah Jr on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Monday, October 5, 2020 that although the private schools have reopened for second-year junior and senior students, as directed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, they feel hard done by the government because they have no funds to cater to the financial obligations they owe their teachers and staff.

According to Mr Asare, “Only 3 per cent of our members have confirmed receiving the government’s stimulus package”.

The majority of GNAPS members, he said, have not even received text messages to that effect, least of the money itself.

He said: “A lot of our members followed up at their respective banks but they were told to go the Ghana Commercial Bank.

“For those who already are customers of GCB, they were forced to open new accounts for the stimulus package.

“As we speak, about 80 per cent of us have opened special-purpose accounts at GCB in anticipation of the stimulus package but to no avail”, he complained.

He said despite the disappointment and the difficulties they are going through, “we cannot say we will not open the schools because it will be unfair to parents and pupils who rely on us”.

To him, the government’s attitude amounts to “deception because our members are being given paltry fractions of the amounts they applied for”.

“For instance, someone may apply for GH¢30,000 but would end up getting only GH¢1,500, GH¢2,000 or GH¢3,000.

“Some of us even suspect that the government is giving us those paltry sums because it’s an election year”, Mr Asare complained.

He stressed that not more than 5 per cent of the members of GNAPS can confidently say they have received the stimulus package.

The government instituted a GH¢1 billion stimulus package to cushion small businesses, as part of measures put in place to ease the financial burden on Ghanaians in the heat of the COVID-19 outbreak.