Decentralize food storage and distribution to schools – NAGRAT boss advises government
The challenge of storage and distribution of food to the various second cycle institutions has led the National Association of Graduate Teachers to advise that it will be better if authorities reconsidered the decentralized system of distributing the food to public second cycle institutions across the country.
Mr Angel Carbonu also complained that “centralisation always give problems.”
He stated that the current centralized system where the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited distributes staple food to schools rather worsens the problems these institutions face.
Proferring solutions to the problem, Mr. Carbonu suggested that government revisits the use of localized procurement where schools are allowed to purchase their food items.
An example, he cited was the fact that “the schools around Ejura will get cheaper maize because maize production is the mainstay of the economy in and around Ejura.”
“When you get to around Tamale and its environs, yam would be cheaper than any other. The localization of food supply was helpful at the time that the schools were engaged in the local purchase,” he added.
“I can assure you that buffer stock itself has taken things from people and is yet to pay, so they are having difficulty in even getting the resources to distribute to schools.”
Meanwhile, the National Buffer Stock company has admitted that food storage in the schools is inhibiting its work in response to complaints by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) for government to ensure that enough food is distributed to all schools across the country to avert any shortage.
