Apaak outlines full breakdown of sanitary pad beneficiaries

Education Ministry officials have provided a detailed account of beneficiaries under the national sanitary pad distribution programme, countering public claims that Senior High School students were excluded and clarifying the price range for procurement.

Delivering remarks on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, Dr. Clement Abass Apaak, MP for Builsa South, said the updated figures were necessary to correct misinformation that resurfaced during the debate on the 2026 budget.

He noted that the programme was designed to support girls in upper primary, junior high school, senior high school, and TVET institutions.

“It is again not accurate when the claim is made that our students in senior high schools were not included,” he said. “They were, and here is the breakdown.”

Dr. Apaak outlined the distribution by level. For upper primary pupils, he said 398,701 female students in Primary 5 and 6 benefitted from the sanitary pads.

At the junior high school level, 1,101,486 students received supplies under the programme. He further reported that 968,285 students in senior high schools and TVET institutions benefited.

He stressed that these figures directly contradict suggestions that distribution ended at the JHS level. According to him, the Ministry adopted a comprehensive model that ensured coverage across the three segments of pre-tertiary education.

Dr. Apaak also addressed concerns raised earlier by the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, who questioned the allocation of GHC292 million for the procurement of 6.6 million sanitary pads and suggested possible cost inflation. Dr. Apaak said the claims did not reflect the actual prices recorded during procurement.

“At no time did the Ministry procure a pack of sanitary pad at GHC45,” he said. “The procurement was in the range of GHC19 to GHC24. GHC19 was the lowest threshold and the highest was GHC24 per pack, and the only reason why there is a variation in this range was because of the distance.”

He explained that transport and logistical considerations created slight price differences across the batches procured. The Ministry, he said, segmented the supply into two major batches drawn from the allocation in the 2025 budget.