Let's expand school feeding programme to cover more schools – Minister-designate for Gender

Government currently pays 79pesewas per meal for each child under the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

There have been calls for government to increase the price per meal of each child to reflect the current increase in the price of foodstuffs.

While caterers under the programme have constantly called on government to pay them on time.

Appearing before the Vetting Committee of Parliament, Thursday, 15 December 2022, the Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection Hajia Lariba Zuweira Abudu, said, government acknowledges the fact that the amount per child is inadequate and is working on increasing it.

“Honestly, I’ll say no but I think government is increasing it.

“The price has been there for quite a number of years now and actually needs to be reviewed and also things have changed so government has taken cognizance of that and that’s why its increasing the amount this year,” the Minister-Designate stated.

She however believes the programme should not be scrapped or focused on only a few schools in order for children to be fed properly.

Instead, she is advocating for the programme to be expanded to enable more children in schools benefit from it.

“I would encourage that we even increase or add more schools because it’s one flagship programme that helps a lot of parents and children as well to stay in school. So I would laise with government and then let them understand that we need to increase the price of the feeding and also even include more schools.”

The Minister-Designate was optimistic that the Gender Committee is considering the appropriate amount to pay for a meal per child and would soon come out with its conclusions.