The National Association of Institutional Suppliers ( NAIS), consisting of 250 members who provide uniforms, stationery, and foodstuffs to Senior High Schools, has called on the government to settle outstanding and current debts owed for supplies made over the past three years.

If the government fails to pay within two weeks, the members have threatened to picket the Ministry of Education.

Mr. Stephen Oware, Chairperson of the Association, expressed frustration over delayed payments, stating, “Payment for supplies we made to the schools for the past three years are always delayed.

 

 

Some supplies made in the 2021 school year are still in arrears, and about 60 percent of 2022 school year supplies are outstanding. The Ministry has failed to fulfill its promise of paying us our monies at our meeting about three months ago.”

He said they were paid in batches, adding that, put of 19 batches of supplies only 4 batches of payment had been made to some members.

The Association highlighted the negative consequences of the situation, with members facing embarrassment from banks and creditors, some losing valuable properties used as collateral, and others experiencing financial insolvency and misery.

Mr. Oware warned that this development seriously threatens the survival of their businesses and puts the livelihoods of their spouses, workers, and dependents at risk if the situation is not urgently addressed.

In addition to demanding payment, Mr. Oware called for an increment in the price of their supplies to schools to meet the present economic situation and the associated price hikes in production costs.

He noted that the cost of production has been abnormally high due to unfavourable factors, while the prices fixed for their supplied products have remained unchanged since 2016.

“We have since 2019 written a series of letters to the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service requesting the upward adjustment, but to our dismay, there hasn’t been any positive response,” Mr. Oware said at a press conference held in Accra.

 

 

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