Nigeria spends N6.2b feeding 3million pupils

Nigeria’s Federal Government has spent N6.2 billion under the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, one of its four ongoing Social Investment Programmes (SIP), with Ogun and Osun states having the most children covered.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice-President), Mr Laolu Akande, made this known in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.


He said the expenditure was in fulfilment of the Federal Government’s plan to ramp up the Social Investment Programmes this year.

According to him, the Buhari administration is now close to its target of feeding three million primary school pupils this year under the Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

“Specifically, at the last count, a total of N6, 204,912,889  has been paid out to 14 states during the school year ending August 2017.
The 14 states that have been covered under the School Feeding Programme are: Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba and Kaduna.

“So far, a total of 2,827,501 school children are currently benefiting from the School Feeding Programme, which is well on course to achieve the Federal Government’s projection to feed over three million pupils this year,’’ he said.

According to the presidential aide, 33,895 cooks have been engaged in the communities where the schools are located across the 14 states.

NAN