Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, has directed that payments under the Ghana School Feeding Programme should be done through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies as part of the Ministry's Fiscal Decentralisation programme. He said this would ensure that the schools received their allocations on time. Mr Asamoah Boateng gave the directive in a statement issued in Accra on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 and signed by Frank Asante, Public Relations Officer of the ministry. It said the fiscal decentralisation was a programme through which all finances were lodged with the assemblies for disbursement to departments, agencies and institutions operating in the metropolitan, municipal and districts. The statement said Government with the support of the Dutch Government had so far disbursed GHc 19,253,975 (192,539,750,000 cedis) towards the programme. It said the programme that started in September 2005 with 10 pilot schools, currently had 975 schools with 457,693 pupils in all 138 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) benefiting. The programme is designed to provide one hot meal a day for pre and public primary school children. Its objectives are to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention rates to reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition among pre and primary school children. The programme is also to strengthen community food production capacities including school gardens to reduce child morbidity among pre-school and school age children. Others are to improve access to potable water and sanitation facilities and to promote diversification of diets based on locally available food with micro-nutrients supplements. A significant aspect of the programme is the use of locally produced and processed foodstuffs as the main source of the meal. Source: GNA