The Government, through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has disbursed GHC160 million out of GHC213 million required to pay caterers of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) for the first term of the 2021 academic year.

The disbursement of the funds, which commenced on Friday 20th August 2021, covered 62 cooking days of the first term.

A statement signed by Siiba Alfa, Head of Public Relations at the GSFP, said the ongoing payment, however, did not cover the Western and Western North regions due to limited funds.

It said the Ghana School Feeding Programme had received "strong assurance" from the Controller and Accountant General for the release of an additional GHC53 million to pay remaining regions as quickly as practicable.

The statement said in line with Government's vision and commitment to sustaining the Programme and improving its quality service to beneficiary pupils, all outstanding arrears would be settled within the framework of the Programme's contractual obligation with caterers and urged those who had payment related issues to contact Regional Coordinators for speedy resolution.

The statement expressed appreciation to caterers for the services "well rendered" over the period and encouraged them to remain committed to feeding the 3,448,067 beneficiary pupils under the Programme.