It has emerged that the government of Ghana spent about $10 Million on the provision of free hot meals for the vulnerable during the lockdown.
In April, the government imposed a three week lockdown on Greater Accra, Greater Kumasi and Kasoa to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
The Country’s Gender and Social Protection Ministry and the National Disaster Management Organization supervised the distribution of the free food to the vulnerable during the 21-day lockdown.
Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta has disclosed that some ¢54.3 an equivalent of $10 Million was spent on the cooked meals distributed during the 21-day lockdown in three areas.
Presenting the midyear budget review Ken Ofori-Atta also revealed that ¢50.2 million which is an equivalent of $ 8.6 million was also transferred to over 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.
“Mr Speaker, the support to households, in terms of supply of dry food packs and hot cooked meals cost Government GH¢54.3 million to enable them to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
This was in addition to an amount of GH¢50.2 million transferred to the 400,000 most-vulnerable individuals under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme,” Mr Ofori-Atta told legislators.
Giving a breakdown in his Mid-year Budget review, the Finance Minister said the Gender Ministry provided 1,827,581 packed hot meals while the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) gave out 917,142 packs to the old and less privileged persons in the affected areas.
He disclosed that 470,000 families were reached with the food distribution exercise and it was carried out in collaboration with faith-based organizations.
But some Ghanaians took to social media to question the amount spent on the food.
The government was accused of politicizing food distribution by giving priority to card bearing members of the ruling NPP. But the government denied that claim.
Source: Africafeeds.com
