Free SHS: Nobody is going to use Heritage Fund - John Boadu

Acting General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu has dismissed claims that the government would definitely use the Heritage Fund to implement its free Senior High School policy.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo, John Boadu stressed that the government has not made any categorical statement to that effect and that the sources of funding for the project will be known when the 2017 fiscal year budget is rolled out.

To him, the critics are just making a mountain out of a molehill because there’s no way the free SHS can be funded by only using the Heritage Fund.

Mr. Boadu told sit-in host of the show Nana Yaw Kesse that the government is looking at other avenues including utilizing the stabilization fund from the oil finds and other sources to make the free SHS feasible.

He stated emphatically that whether the critics like it or not, President Nana Akufo-Addo and the government won’t back down on the project.

“We don’t have to even drag this. By the time I’m done, you will know that this is not even argument. Because all the Heritage Fund contains is GHC 900 million, so even if you say you’re using all of it; you can’t proceed for 2 years. So, nobody is saying that the free SHS that (President) Nana Addo said he will do by September, we’re only going to use the Heritage Fund,” he said.