The Chief Executive Officer of the National Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Hanan Abdul-Wahab says the government has settled 85 per cent of arrears owed licenced food suppliers between 2017 and 2022.
The CEO who disclosed this when he addressed the media on the state of the company at the Ministry of Information’s ‘Meet the Press’ series in Accra yesterday said in spite of the challenges inherited by the NPP government in 2017 has consistently made an effort to settle arrears owed food suppliers
He said the government has paid an amount of GH¢2.7 million and owed suppliers while efforts were been made to pay outstanding arrears of GH¢30 million to suppliers.
He said, “Some money was released on the 17th of last month, GH¢ 80 million has also been released which they are about to pick their cheques, in terms of percentage, 85 percent of what we owed them for the year 2022 as arrears have been settled. We are working to ensure that about 15 percent remaining will also be settled before the end of the month.”
He also said the company had also on countless occasions, paid licensed suppliers earlier than the agreed date and therefore assured the public of the company’s commitment to continuously honour its obligations as expected.
The CEO who acknowledged the plight of the food suppliers who picketed at the offices of the company to demand payment of arrears therefore urged the food suppliers to exercise restraint as the government makes an effort to settle all arrears owed them in 2022.
He stated that in spite of the challenges facing the company in its efforts to provide adequate warehouses in various parts of the country, the government has been able to construct 60 warehouses out of eighty while the rest are at various levels of completion.
He stated that steps have also been taken to revamp abandoned silos in various parts of the country to enable them to store over 80,000 metric tonnes of food to support existing warehouses that may not be able to store a lot of food due to the huge dividends expected from the planting for food and jobs.
He said the National Food Buffer stock company is committed to contributing its quota to the development of the agricultural value chain from harvesting, transportation processing, storage and distribution.
He added that the company will also continue to explore opportunities to ensure that the benefits of establishing national food reserves are fully realized.
