Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, has stated that in order to promote economic opportunities for women, special considerations would be given to women in Government’s procurement.

Mr Ofori-Atta, said this when he delivered the 2018 budget statement on the theme “Putting Ghana Back to Work”, in Accra on Wednesday.

He said empowering women and achieving gender equality was fundamental to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, adding “the President is committed to empowering women and creating opportunities for their participation in the job and wealth creation agenda”.

The Finance Minister also noted that under the Ghana School Feeding Programme, 1,677,322 pupils in the existing beneficiary schools in all 216 districts in the country are being provided with one meal per school day.

He said the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection implemented new caterer contracting guidelines which required caterers to purchase food items from local farmers and fishermen.

The new guideline was used to recruit 5,528 caterers, the Finance Minister noted.