The National Association of Institutional Suppliers has called on the government to address its outstanding debts for supplies made to schools in the past three years.

The association, which consists of 250 members involved in providing uniforms, stationery, and foodstuffs to Senior High Schools (SHSs), has given the government a two-week ultimatum to settle the debts.

Should the payment not be made within the given timeframe, the association members plan to stage a protest at the Ministry of Education.

Chairperson of the Association, Stephen Oware, expressed that they have been supplying schools since 2021 but have yet to receive full payment for their services. The payments have been made in batches, with only five out of the 19 batches seeing partial payment for some members of the association.

“Payment for supplies we made to the schools for the past three years are always delayed. Some supplies made in 2021 school year are still in arrears, and about 60 per cent of 2022 school year supplies are outstanding,” he said, adding that: “The Ministry has failed to fulfil its promise of paying us our monies at our meeting about three months ago.”

According to Mr. Oware, the unresolved debt situation has caused significant distress for members of the association, resulting in embarrassment from their bankers and creditors. Some members have been forced to part with valuable properties used as collateral for loans, while others have experienced insolvency and extreme hardship, leading to unfortunate cases of members losing their lives.

The dire consequences stemming from the unpaid debts have placed immense strain on the affected individuals, exacerbating their financial difficulties and contributing to personal misery.

“This development is seriously threatening the survival of our businesses. Our spouses, workers and dependants risk losing their livelihood if this situation is not urgently addressed,” he added.

Mr Oware also called for increment in the price of their supplies to schools to meet the present economic situation and its attendant price hikes in the production cost.

He said since 2016, the price cost of their supplies paid by Government had remained the same without any increment to cushion them in the current economic situation.

“All the factors affecting our production have not been favourable and, therefore, the cost of production has been abnormally high. Despite all these, the prices fixed for the supplied of products have virtually been the same, with the price fixed since 2016 still maintained.”

“We have since 2019 written series of letters to the Ministry of Education and Ghana education Service requesting upward adjustment, but to our dismay, there hasn’t been any positive response,” he stated.