For food supply, GH₵150 million was made available last week, according to Kwasi Kwarteng

Kwasi Kwarteng, the immediate past spokesperson for the Education Ministry, claimed that before the conclusion of its term, the Akufo-Addo-led administration had made sufficient financial preparations for school lunches.

Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng stated in an interview with Dwaso Nsem of Adom FM that GH₵150 million had been granted for food supplies, of which GH₵100 million had been given to suppliers and GH₵50 million to headteachers for the procurement of perishables.

He stated that the disbursement took place last week, but he did not provide a precise date.

This clarification is in response to a request for assistance with eating issues in SHSs made by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior High Schools (CHASS) to parents and guardians.

Primus Baro, the secretary of CHASS, revealed that some schools, particularly those in northern Ghana, are limiting meals. According to Baro, food supplies are limited, especially in the Northern, Upper West, and Upper East regions where there is no oil at all and schools only have rice and a small amount of gari.

The requirement that students bring food, according to Mr. Kwarteng, maybe a preventative strategy rather than a sign of a total lack, therefore he disagreed with the representation of a food crisis.

He underlined that suppliers’ cautious stance as a result of the uncertainty surrounding future payments from the new administration was the cause of the crisis, not the government’s financial deficit.

“The suppliers will get terrified and panicked when the new government keeps indicating plans to let headmasters purchase their food,” Mr. Kwarteng explained.

“There might be an issue, but no one should portray the former administration as having left a terrible condition to sow discontent. Nowhere is it acknowledged that there was no food; there was food in the schools.