The National Food Suppliers Association has revealed that the government has not yet paid its members for the food they provided to senior high schools across the nation, which amounts to just around GH300 million.
Worried members of the association surrounded the National Food Buffer Stock Company's (NAFCo) offices on Friday, August 18, and demanded payment of 200 million Ghanaian cedis in arrears owed to the suppliers for the year 2022.
After months of pleading with the government to pay their arrears so they could continue their businesses, the suppliers started days of picketing at the Buffer Stock offices in July.
They then reacted furiously as they only received a portion of the money due to them.
The besieging of NAFCo's facilities, according to Kwaku Amedume, a spokesperson for the food suppliers group, was to collect debts that have been owing for two years but have depreciated in value.
"When we picketed the last time, the government was able to raise GH100 million to be distributed to members with the assurance that they would provide us the remaining funds on August 17. A few of our members decided to ask the buffer stock how far they were planning to settle us, which is what actually transpired. On August 18, when we met with them, they informed us that the Ministry of Education had granted GH 80 million to be distributed to the suppliers, bringing the total payment for 2022 to GH 180 million, or around 85% of the total arrears owed vendors.
"They have promised to take action with our 2023 arrears, which total roughly 300 million Ghanaian cedis, in two weeks, so we actually went to the Buffer Stock to check out when we were going to get paid."
#BufferStock #NFSA #GHANA
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