Scores of caterers under the School Feeding Programme staged a protest at the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection on Monday, December 30, demanding payment of arrears for two academic terms covering 2023 and 2024.

The caterers, who traveled from various parts of the country, claim that despite assurances from the Controller and Accountant General's Department that funds have been disbursed to the Ministry, they have yet to receive payment.

Speaking to JoyNews correspondent Prince Kwame Kudogah, the President of the School Feeding Caterers Association, Nana Sekyi Amoh, described the situation as dire, citing that the amount owed them by the government is substantial.

"It's a huge amount. I can't give an exact figure, but it's very huge," she said. "We are requesting for our two-term pay. That is the third term and the first term.”

Nana Sekyi Amoh explained that despite their tradition of pre-financing meals with the expectation of timely government reimbursement, they have been repeatedly let down.

"We are protesting now because our leaders have been lying to us for a long time. Since August, they said our money is ready. After September, after the third term, they said we would receive our money in November.

“November, we did not receive any amount, and now December is ending and up until now, nobody has come out to tell us anything,” she lamented.

The association's president also expressed skepticism about a recent government statement indicating that payments would be made on December 31.

“Yesterday, they came out with a statement that we will be paid tomorrow. That is 31^st [December] which we are not sure of. That's the reason why we are protesting now. We need our money because we owe our creditors, and they are on us. You know how creditors come after you when you owe them for a long time. That's the reason we are protesting now.

“We don't trust anything they [government] say again, because they have been lying to us for a long time and they will come out with another thing that there is no money for us to be paid. We have seen the statement but the statement is not signed by anybody. The statement which came out does not have a signature, so we don't know who brought that statement out.”

The caterers insisted that their protest was a last resort, driven by the need for accountability and transparency from the government regarding the payment of their arrears.