The Finance Ministry has released an amount of GHS106,697,628.80 to the Registrar of Scholarships for payment of feeding grants for second cycle schools in the northern regions.

It says the payment is in respect of the third term feeding grant for 137,300 students for the 2015-2016 academic year, and also for 140,264 students for the first term of 2016/2017 academic year.

An amount of GHS184,851,616.60 has been outstanding since the beginning of 2017 which is supposed to be scholarship payments for the third term of 2015/2016, the first term of 2016/2017 and the expected payment for the second term of 2016/2017, the Ministry said. 

The Ministry is processing the remaining claims for the second and third terms of the 2016/2017 academic year.

Senior high schools (SHS) in the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions on Tuesday, announced their decision to delay reopening indefinitely, due to lack of funds to pay their suppliers. 

The three regions together have a total of 72 Senior High Schools that are managed by the Ghana Education Service.

The Heads said government’s failure to reimburse the outstanding feeding grants for four academic calendars, necessitated the action because they were hugely indebted to their suppliers.

Joy News correspondent Hashmin Mohammed reported that the schools were scheduled to reopen on May 16, but the school heads say they are not in the position to feed the students if the feeding grants are not released.