GSFP STARTS DISBURSEMENT OF CATERERS
REMITTANCES ELECTRONICALLY
As part of measures to streamline the payment system of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to its caterers, the ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection mandated with the ministerial responsibility of the programme has started the transmission of feeding grants to caterers electronically.
Rolling out the new payment system, the minister of Gender Nana Oye Lithur stressed that this innovation would address and curtail in significant proportions the delays associated with the previous system where it took in some cases more than two months before caterers were able to access their money after government had long released the funds to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies
According to her, government is instituting these reforms in order to ensure transparency, accountability and value for money, which she said was very crucial in the delivery of sustainable school feeding programme in Ghana.
The two organisations engaged in this initiative; MTN Mobile Services and the Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement System (GHiPSS) have so far paid about ninety percent of GSFP caterers since the commencement of disbursement late last month.
GHiPSS which is paying caterers in the Northern Zone of the country comprising the three Northern Regions, Ashanti as well Brong Ahafo Regions transmits the funds through e-zwich cards that which they had earlier issued to the caterers in the respective regions.
MTN on the other serves the five regions in the Southern Zone namely: Eastern, Western, GT. Accra, Central and Volta regions. Caterers under MTN receive their money through SMS alert on their MTN phone numbers. Before the start of the disbursement, MTN had registered the caterers on the mobile money platform and issued them MTN Sim cards for those who did not have MTN numbers and those with existing MTN numbers were appropriately brought on the MTN network
Some minor challenges that were identified during the transmission of the funds are being addressed to ensure that subsequent payments go through smoothly.
Caterers who are still unable to access their money should report or contact the programme’s regional coordinators in their respective regions for speedy resolution of the difficulties
