Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Northern Regional Manager, SEND GHANA, a Non- Governmental Organisation , says the Government must re-target the beneficiaries of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to achieve its mandates.
He said it should also ensure that majority of schools in underserved or rural communities were the actual beneficiaries of the programme.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Mumuni said in implementing the GSFP, it was important to take cognisance of areas that were doing very poorly in order to increase the schools to be fed.
He stated that one of the reasons for the introduction of the GSFP was to increase enrolment and retention of children of school.
The Regional Manager noted that the Programme was everywhere, however, it had outlived its usefulness in some areas because the problems no longer existed.
“The figures of some of the schools in the Metropolitan Assemblies in Greater Accra, Tamale Metro, Cape Coast, Kumasi does not make sense for them to continue being on the Programme so we think that we should concentrate on rural areas,” he said.
Mr Mumuni however added that, there were some districts in the South that were doing poorly, especially in the fishing areas with the problem of enrolment and retention of pupils.
He emphasised that the introduction of the Programme gave children in deprived areas the opportunity to be in school when their parents could not afford to provide feeding money for them, a reason they were out of school.
‘‘Parents that were not willing to send their children to school because they’re been fed, are now sending their kids to school and that is helping government to achieve its objective of increasing enrolment,’’ he said.
The Regional Manager called for a dedicated funding source for the Programme to alleviate the issues of the delays in reimbursement by Government that the caterers faced.
He appealed to the Government to scrap the 3 per cent tax on the reimbursed funds of the caterers, saying, “They are paid GHS1 and 3 per cent is taken from it as tax and they are left with GHS0. 97 pesewas, it is practically impossible for them to be able to cook with what we require of them, using 97 pesewas to cook.”
Mr Mumuni said it was an issue that needed to be addressed for the caterers to deliver and provide quality and good quantity of food to the children.
The Ghana School Feeding Programme was started in 2005 as an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
It is to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention of children, and reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition amongst kindergarten and primary school children.
Source: Ghana News Agency