Food and Agriculture Minister Bryan Acheampong has announced that the government will begin paying debts owed food suppliers on July 17, 2023.
Since July 7, 2023, the Food Suppliers have been picketing at the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), demanding payment of GHC278 million owed to them for delivering food to schools under the Free SHS initiative.
The minister claims that payments have already begun. “Luckily, there has been a reconciliation, and payment is being processed for them, and it will be paid to them starting July 17. I can assure you that from July 17, those who have supplied and have been cleared will be paid their money,” he stated, according to citinewsroom.com.
In addition, he stated that the protest had nothing to do with the payments’ initial implementation.
He continued, “There was no need to have the protest for these people to be paid from July 17, they are not being paid because they have protested because we had the timelines on when they were going to receive the money, and the protest has only forced us to come out to tell them the date for the payment, and so I told them today that it was not because of the protest that they were being paid.”
