During the maiden State of the Nation Address delivered by H.E President John Dramani Mahama, on Thursday, 27th February 2025, the new government revealed its resolve to hand over the activities of feeding in Senior High Schools (SHS) back to the administrators of the various schools. This is at the back of a campaign promise well demonstrated in the Party’s manifesto leading up to the 2024 General Elections held on 7th December in Ghana. I find this a very good call.
For a country like ours, burdened with incessant problems, the best any government can do is try to resolve some of them and, at worst, leave them as they are. You don’t add up.
As part of the implementation of the Free Senior High School Policy in 2017, feeding was made free to students in the Senior High School, with boarding students having access to three square meals daily and day students accessing one meal every day.
Before this time, the administrators of the various SHS, led by the Headmasters, were in charge of leading the procurement and provision of food for all boarding students, who were made to pay for it as part of their boarding fees. However, with the implementation of the FSHS, the government directed the National Food Buffer Stock Company to lead and provide all SHS in the country with foodstuffs. What this meant was that, this company, with headquarters in Accra, would have to supply foodstuffs to barely all the 243 MMDAs and 276 constituencies in the country, from Accra. This arrangement offered myriad of problems ranging from incurring unwarranted transportation costs to the taxpayer, loss of revenue to local economies, and delays in food supplies to schools. However, with this new directive expected to take effect in the coming months, the country can avoid these problems.
Firstly, this new directive is important in the local economic development of various MMDAs. Let’s take a district like Sekyere Central, a notable agricultural district in the Ashanti region, producing crops such as yam, maize, beans, belle pepper, carrot, and cabbage in abundance. However, the schools in this District cannot be fed with their produce. Food had to be transported from Accra to these schools. Consider the transportation cost alone, and this is just a case of one District. With this new directive, schools in the Sekyere Central District and other agricultural districts can feed on produce of their locality. Farmers will not have to travel to urban areas to sell their products, increasing their incomes and making the lives of farmers better. This is also important in reducing agricultural waste in Ghana. It is on record that Ghana loses almost a one-third of its agricultural products along the supply chain annually, totaling approximately 3.2 million tons and a staggering 762.32 Ghana Cedis. This directive has a way of reducing this waste and losses.
Again, this new directive is important to ensure that essential problems as under feeding and under nourishment are curbed in our schools. This is important to ensure that students are in the right frame of mind to study, pursue and execute their academic works.
Moreover, this initiative will excessively cut down government waste. As revealed by the former Minister of Finance in 2024, the implementation of the FSHS from 2017 has cost the country a staggering GH₵ 9.9 billion. This amount constitutes cost of transporting foodstuffs from Accra to all the SHS in the country. With this new directive, the country has the opportunity to scrap this component of the FSHS budget or reduce it to the barest minimum.
Lastly, the stoppage of transporting of foods from Accra to secondary schools in other parts of the country will significantly reduce the release of CFC gases into the atmosphere. This has an adverse impact on the global fight against climate change.
Article by
Asamoah Isaac Eli
He is a Development Planner. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from KNUST in Ghana. He shares in the ideals of YAFO including free market and civil liberty. He is also a strong advocate for mental health awareness and climate change mitigation interventions.
