Prime News Ghana

School Feeding: Caterers embark on strike

By Justice Kofi Bimpeh
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School Feeding Caterers Association are embarking on a strike over what they described as an inadequate feeding grant.

According to the association, the prices of goods and services in the country have gone up making it difficult for them to cook for the school children base on the current grant being paid to them.

The government currently is paying them 97pesewas per child but the caterers want it increased to 3 cedis per child.

 Juliana Cudjoe, the President of the Greater Accra School Feeding Caterers Association said: "We are not going to cook until we hear from them, we need our payment first and we want an increment too so we are not going to cook on Monday."

But they are expected to meet the government today over their decision.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with indigenous cocoa processor, Niche Confectionery Ghana Limited (Confectionery Ghana), to supply enriched ready-to-drink cocoa beverages to basic school children across the country.

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, signed the pact on behalf of the Ministry while the Chief Executive Officer of Niche Cocoa Industry Limited, the parent company of Confectionery Ghana, Edmund Poku, signed for the confectionery maker.

The agreement signed last Friday in Accra allows Confectionery Ghana, to supply cocoa beverages to 1.8 million basic school children in the six cocoa growing regions in Ghana. It allows the company to further extend supplies to 5.6 million children nationwide.

Per the undertaking, Confectionery Ghana is to provide basic school children in the selected schools with at least one ready-to-drink cocoa beverage per week as part of a collective effort by the government and the company to increase cocoa consumption within the country.

Currently, per capita consumption of cocoa in Ghana is approximately 0.5 kilograms (kg) although the country is the second largest producer of the crop in the world.