An aspiring NPP Communications Director for the Damongo Constituency, Mr. Iddi Adam Osman, has raised concerns over the award of food supply contracts for public senior high schools in the West Gonja Municipality to suppliers from outside the Savannah Region, describing the development as a betrayal of campaign promises and a disincentive to local farmers and food processors.
In a statement, Mr. Osman noted that during the 2024 election campaign, President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC promised to scrap the Ghana Buffer Stock Company’s role in supplying foodstuffs to public senior high schools, arguing that handing procurement directly to school heads would empower local farmers and market women. That promise, he says, has not been honoured.
According to Mr. Osman, the Mahama administration not only retained the Buffer Stock supply system after assuming office but awarded contracts to suppliers from the Bono East (Techiman) and Volta regions. The three public senior high schools in the West Gonja Municipality; Damongo Senior High School, Ndewura Jakpa Senior High/Technical School, and Larabanga Islamic Senior High School are now reportedly receiving gari and other food items from contractors based far outside the municipality.
He pointed out that under the previous arrangement, suppliers were locally based and sourced produce directly from farmers and processors within Damongo and its environs, providing a meaningful economic stimulus to the local agricultural sector. The current arrangement, he argued, effectively transfers that economic benefit to producers in other regions at the expense of Savannah Region farmers.
Mr. Iddi Osman questioned why, even if the administration considered former NPP-era suppliers unqualified for contracts under the new government, the contracts were not reassigned to NDC-affiliated individuals within the constituency rather than to suppliers from distant regions.
He also noted that the Buffer Stock model, which the NDC fiercely criticised before the election, has not only been retained but expanded, with newly established regional offices reportedly filled with party loyalists.
Mr. Osman is calling for a review of the contract awards in the interest of local economic empowerment and accountability to the promises made to constituents ahead of the 2024 elections.
