The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has announced plans to digitise the School Feeding Programme in April to track and deal with corruption issues associated with the policy's implementation.

The system, when launched, will monitor what pupils are fed at every given time to ensure the quality of meals and verification of claims.

Speaking at the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Fijai Senior High School in Takoradi, Mr Bawumia stated that the ‘e-feeding’ programme will help avoid future embezzlement of funds.

He added that the digital system will also address some challenges, including issues of ‘ghost schools and ghost children.’

“Next month, we are digitising the school feeding programme. We looked at it last week; it’s all set. We will know every school in the country; every day if you feed them with rice and beans, we will know; how many students you have fed we will know.”

“There will be no room for [corruption] in the school feeding programme after we launch this programme next month,” he said.

Dr Bawumia noted that government has made significant strides in the country's transformation through its digitisation drive.

He said critics of the Akufo-Addo-led administration should refrain from doubting the effectiveness of the yet-to-be-launched ‘e-feeding’ programme.

“We are doing so much for the first time, and we need to understand that we are changing this country, we are transforming this country, let nobody tell us we cannot do it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the government has suspended the expansion of the School Feeding Programme to allow debts owed caterers to be cleared.

This was disclosed by the Caretaker Gender Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, March 2.

Responding to a question from the Yilo Krobo Member of Parliament, Albert Tetteh Nyarkotey, she noted that “currently the expansion of the programme is on hold.”

“We are clearing all arrears of caterers and putting in place measures to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to all beneficiary schools as well as the caterers.”

“We are also putting in place a management information system to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the system. We shall surely inform this august House when we are ready to expand the programme to cover additional schools,” she said.

In December last year, the Minister reassured that the remaining arrears owed to the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) caterers would soon be settled.

She noted that all the necessary data and figures had been worked on and submitted to the Controller and Accountant General to release funds to pay the caterers.

President Akufo-Addo, in September last year during a tour of the Western region, disclosed that the Finance Ministry had released ¢31million to settle arrears owed to school feeding caterers in the country.

When the President made the revelation, the Ghana National School Feeding Caterers Association (GNSFCA) had appealed to the government to increase the feeding fees by 50%.

They said the current amount cannot cater for much under the prevailing economy.