No more Buffer Stock – Mahama promises to decentralise SHS food supply

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has vowed to cancel the supply of food items to Senior High Schools by the National Food Buffer Stock Company as part of his vision to review the Free SHS policy.

John Mahama says feeding grants would be channelled through the heads of Senior High Schools to procure the food items for students.

During his Building Ghana Tour at Kambatiak in the North East Region, John Mahama assured that the procurement of food items for Senior High Schools would be decentralized if he wins the upcoming polls.

“We are coming to decentralise the cooking of food for children and the procurement of food. The headmasters of the schools are going to be responsible for procuring food for the children. They are not going to sit and wait for National Buffer Stock to bring the food. If we decentralise the procurement of food, the headmasters will be able to procure the food from the farmers in the area and they will be able to buy groundnuts, they will be able to buy beans, they will be able to buy vegetables so that the children can get a nutritious diet. And so the feeding grants should not go to Buffer Stock. The feeding grants should be paid directly to the secondary schools so that the headmasters can use the money and buy nutritious food for the children. And so we are going to make Free SHS better.”