FG to spend N999 million daily on 10 million pupils
The Federal Government is to invest N999m daily on feeding of approximately 10 million pupils in the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) across the federation.
The team lead of NHGSFP, Aishatu Digil, made this revelation in Abuja, the country’s capital, yesterday at a stakeholders’ meeting on the modalities for disbursement.
She narrated that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, has been given the approval to invest N100 per person daily for the feeding programme.
“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.
“We have all stakeholders like the World Food Programme, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the Ministries of Agriculture, Education and others to deliberate on the modalities of disbursements.
“We’re here basically to look at how best we can realise the benefits of the programme based on the new approved cost to improve the standard and quality of the meal and menu for the children.
“The breakdown of the N100 is as follows; N70 is for the cost of all food items except egg, N14 for cost of egg to be implemented through the state structures in partnership with Poultry Association of Nigeria.
“We’re planning of having ‘Egg Wednesday’, where each child in the programme will be giving 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,” Digil said.
