Local Govt. Minister urges corporate institutions to support School Feeding Programme

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, on Thursday called on corporate institutions to partner government to improve operations of the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

He said such partnership would ensure increase in the enrolment to the programme as their contribution towards national development.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo made the call when the managements of Airtel Ghana Limited, MTN Ghana Limited, and Vodafone Ghana Limited paid a courtesy call on him in Accra on Thursday.

He appealed to them to consider venturing into areas that could improve on national development such as the establishment of e-libraries in remote communities to impact on reading and writing for students.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo urged the managements to maximise the Information Communication Technology to benefit school children nationwide as part of their corporate social responsibilities.

He called on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to initiate programmes that would motivate telecom operators within their jurisdiction to contribute towards development in their areas.

Madam Hannah Agbozo, Legal and Regulatory Director of Airtel, said the company had established an education programme, under which schools would be adopted and assisted with feeding, provision of library books and other learning materials.

“Our focus is to ensure that girls have access to quality education in the rural communities across the country,” she added.

Mr Patrick Boateng, Director, External Affairs of Vodafone, said management has initiated a project for deprived communities dubbed: “My Village, My Project” which targets assemblies in the Central, Northern, Upper East and West Regions.

He appealed to the Sector Ministry for assistance to identify the most vulnerable assemblies for assistance, with the initial programme implementation scheduled for the second quarter of 2011.

Source: GNA