School Feeding: Buhari regime to spend N999 million daily

9,990,862 pupils from primary one to three in the programme would now be fed with N100 daily for 20 days in a month.

News Agency of Nigeria • May 24, 2022

OSINBAJO EATING WITH SCHOOLCHILDREN

President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime on Tuesday said it would spend N999 million daily to feed approximately 10 million pupils in the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) across the country.

Aishatu Digil, the team lead of NHGSFP disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting on disbursement modalities for the review cost of feeding in the programme in Abuja.

She said Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, approved spending N100 per person daily on the feeding in the programme.

She said that 9,990,862 pupils from primary one to three in the programme would now be fed with N100 daily for 20 days in a month, which would amount to N999,086,200 daily.

“Prior to this, we were feeding school children with N70 per child, per meal. This was since 2016, but the president has approved N100 upward review.

“The breakdown of the N100 is as follows; N70 is for the cost of all food items except egg, N14 for the cost of egg to be implemented through the state structures in partnership with Poultry Association of Nigeria.

“We are planning of having ‘Egg Wednesday’, where each child in the programme will be given one egg each every Wednesday.

“N10 stipends for cooks, N5 and N6 for micronutrient fortification, payable to cooks and one naira for quality assurance, payable to supervisors, which is optional,” she said.

Mrs Digil said the programme would eliminate poor implementation practices, adding that the ministry was looking out for reforms.

Meanwhile, Umar Bindir, the National Resource Person of the National Social Investment Programme, said that the programme was not the responsibility of the federal government alone.

Musa Abubakar, the programme manager of NHGSFP in Sokoto State, said pupils and their parents were happy with the initial N70 per meal per child.

Kingsley Anikwe from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development suggested that the formation of school gardens should be encouraged in schools to handle the production of agricultural produce.

(NAN)

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