FG To Feed 700,000 Pupils For 10 Days

The Federal Government has released N375 million for the implementation of its school-feeding programme in Anambra, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ebonyi states

Mr Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice-President, said on Sunday in Abuja that the money was release this year, adding that the amount is meant to feed almost 700,000 primary school pupils for 10 days in the five states.

Giving a breakdown of the allocations, Akande said: “The sum of about N375, 434, 870 has just been released and paid to 7,909 cooks in those states for the feeding of a total of 677, 476 primary school pupils. Ogun got a total of N119, 648, 900 paid to 1,381 cooks to feed 170, 927 pupils while Ebonyi got N115, 218, 600 paid to 1,466 cooks to feed 164, 598 pupils. Anambra got N67.5 million paid to 937 cooks to feed 96,489 pupils; Oyo state got N72.2 million paid to 1,437 cooks to feed 103, 269 pupils, and Osun got N867,370 paid to 2,688 to feed 142, 193 pupils.”

Akande said that all monies were paid directly to the cooks and covered 10 days of school, disclosing that Zamfara and Enugu states would follow later in the week with N188.7m and N67.2m payment respectively

“In Zamfara, the sum would be paid to 2,738 cooks to feed 269, 665 pupils, and in Enugu, the sum would be paid to 1,128 cooks to feed 96, 064 pupils. By then, over N631 million would have been released so far in 2017 for school feeding in seven states, paid to 11,775 cooks and meant to feed over one million primary school pupils,’’ Akande said

Akande, who also updated journalists on the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP), noted that the programmes namely the Home Feeding school programme and the N-Power Programme for the payment of stipends to university graduates, were proceeding at different stages of implementation

According to him, “all states of the federation, except two, are now being processed for the payment of N30, 000 monthly stipends to 200,000 graduates, the N-Power beneficiaries.”

He noted that the process of payment of verified graduates, who were beneficiaries, had reached different stages of progress in the affected states.

The school-feeding programme, which is part of the Federal Government N500b Social Investment plan, is expected to run until 2020 with the aim of providing “a nutritious hot meal a day to over 24 million primary school children.”