Ghana and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday signed two food assistance operational contracts aimed at boosting girl enrolment and attendance in first cycle schools in the three northern regions.

It is also to improve condition of health among vulnerable mothers and children in those areas.

The agreements worth about $15.3m will make quantity of cereals and vegetable oil available every month to girls in primary and Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), who have at least attained 85 percent attendance rate to encourage them to stay in school.

Expectant and nursing mothers would also receive similar food aid to meet their special nutritional and health needs as well as serve as an incentive to them to attend health and nutritional training sessions.

The food assistance contract under the Supplementary Feeding and Health and Nutrition Project and Education of Girls in Ghana's Northern Savannah Areas Project is being offered within the context of the WFP's Country Programme, which spans five years -2001-2005.

About 482,000 people are expected to benefit from 35,000 tons of food assistance, (an average of 7,000 tons annually), within the project period.

Dr Gheysika Agambila, Deputy Minister of Finance signed for Ghana while Ms Eva Hodell, WFP Representative initialled on behalf of the programme.

Dr Agambila said the interventions planned in the specific areas of health and education would go a long way to complement government's efforts in improving the quality of life in those areas.

He was happy that the Programme emphasised the issue of malnutrition, saying that that deficiency was a persistent health problem and impacted negatively on the performance of children in school.

"Similarly, the efforts to encourage the girl child to obtain a decent level of education through the planned interventions in the Girls’ education project are a laudable one, and ties in, again with government's many programmes to foster and promote girl child education," he said.

The Deputy Minister urged the Ministries of Health and Education, the implementing agencies, to demonstrate ownership of the projects and to pursue common collaborative strategies to ensure the success of the programme.

Ms Eva Hodell said the enrolment rate in the northern regions was far below the national average and expressed the hope that the programme would encourage more girls to go to school.

She said the assistance also fell in line with government's efforts at improving health and education needs of Ghanaians and as was contained the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and the United Nations Millennium development targets.