School Feeding Crisis Looms as September Reopening Nears
With the new academic year set to begin next month, uncertainty hangs over government boarding schools in Sierra Leone. Several principals fear they may be unable to reopen in September due to a looming halt in diet supplies from contractors who have gone unpaid for months.
Some suppliers say they have not received a single payment from the Ministry of Finance since January last year, despite being owed huge sums. The contractors
many of whom are Sierra Leoneans warn that without these backlog payments, they cannot resume the delivery of essential cooking and feeding items to boarding schools.
The crisis extends beyond boarding institutions. The national school feeding program, which supports primary schools across the country, is also under threat. For nearly eleven months, suppliers under this program have gone unpaid, jeopardizing meal provision for thousands of pupils.
“These contractors took out massive bank loans some using their homes as collateral to finance their contracts,” a senior official at the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education revealed. “Without urgent intervention from the Ministry of Finance, they risk losing their properties.”
The issue has caught the attention of international partners. Senior officials from the IMF and WFP in Freetown have reportedly urged the Ministry of Finance to prioritize funding for the school feeding program. “From the reports we’ve seen in the local press, it’s clear that the program is in danger,” an IMF representative reportedly told Finance Ministry officials last week.
A Ministry of Finance spokesperson acknowledged last night that the national school feeding program remains a government priority but declined to provide further details.
Investigations are ongoing.
