2025 Budget: Gov’t increases Capitation from Gh¢84m to GH¢145.5m

The Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, says the government has increased the amount for the Capitation Grant for the feeding of all public school by 73.2%.

Presenting the 2025 budget to Parliament on Tuesday, the Finance Minister mentioned several allocations during the budget reading.

“Under the School Feeding Programme, budgetary provision has been increased from GH¢1.344 billion to GH¢1.788 billion in 2025, representing a 33% increase. The allocation for 2025 reflects an increase in the feeding cost per meal per child per day from GH¢1.50 to GH¢2.00, representing 33.3%.

“Mr. Speaker, the government has allocated GH¢145.5 million to the Capitation Grant, up from GH¢84 million in 2024, this an increase of 73.2% over the previous year’s allocation.”

He also stated that the government allocated GH¢203 million for the payment of the Teacher Trainee allowances and another GH¢480 million for Nursing Trainee allowances.

According to him, the government has uncapped the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL). An amount of GH¢9.93 billion has been programmed for the “National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for: claim payments; essential medicines; vaccines payments; the Free Primary Healthcare; the Ghana Medical Care Trust (MahamaCares); and bridging of the USAID financing shortfall, among others.”

“In 2025, Government will continue to implement reforms and increase budgetary allocations to enhance the implementation of the four targeted social protection programmes, namely NHIS, the LEAP Programme, the School Feeding Programme, and the Capitation Grant.”

Dr. Ato Forson added that under the LEAP programme, benefits has been indexed to inflation and the number of beneficiary households will be increased from 350,000 to 400,000 from July 2025.

“The allocation for LEAP benefits have also been increased by 30.8% from GH¢728.8 million to GH¢953.5 million in 2025. Additionally, the budget for the School Feeding Programme as well as the cost of feeding per pupil per day has been increased by 33%.

“Similarly, the allocation to the Capitation Grant has been increased from GH¢84 million in 2024 to GH¢145.5 million in 2025, representing an increase of 73.2%.”