Govt clears GH¢149 million School Feeding arrears

The Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Gifty Twum Ampofo, has stated that the government will soon pay caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) for the next academic year (2017/2018), having cleared all arrears of GH¢149 million owed them.

The deputy minister said the move was to ensure the effectiveness of the programme. 

Mrs Ampofo said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic after she opened the congress of the 36th Multiple District (MD) 403 Convention of the Lions Club International (LCI) in Accra last Thursday.

Participants

The congress was attended by delegates from 28 African countries from West and Central Africa to take stock of their activities, network and share experiences about new ways of doing things.

School Feeding Programme

Giving details of the GSFP, Mrs Ampofo said the social intervention would be expanded when budgetary allocation was made.

She added that although the programme was meant for the rural poor, the ministry intended to extend it to the urban poor as well.

"Since it is a social intervention programme, the ministry intends to collaborate with others, including the Lions Club, to better the lives of the people in the country," she mentioned.

Volunteerism

The Lions Clubs International President, Chancellor Bob Corlew, said the LCI had embarked on a lot of projects within the health sector which had positively improved upon the lives of the people across Africa.

The Chairman of the Council of Governors, Mr Alphonse Achkar, said the LCI was celebrating 100 years of service and volunteerism in the world and that projects undertaken in Ghana included building an Eye-Care Centre at the Tema General Hospital and the Eye Care and Training Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which had contributions from Moorfields of the United Kingdom and the government of Ghana.