Federal government will today lunch the school feeding programme, which
is expected to ensure the feeding of over 24 million primary school
children, would have each of the children given one meal per day in the
first year of its operation.
The scheme is part of the N500
billion social investment plans of President Muhammadu Buhari’s
Presidency, even as both the federal and state governments are expected
to review the strategic plan for the scheme.
The event is billed
to hold at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Some
dignitaries expected to be in attendance include governors of Borno,
Oyo, Osun, Enugu and Kaduna states, and other government representatives
and stakeholders from 36 states of the federation and developmental
partners.
According to a statement from the Office of the Acting
President, the strategic plans will run until 2020 and forms the
cornerstone of the nationwide Home Grown School Feeding programme.
The
statement added that “the Federal Government is working with key
technical partners to capitalize upon global experience and adopt best
practices.”
One such partner is the UK’s Imperial College,
London’s Partnership for Child Development, PCD, which is providing
technical assistance to the Presidency. The scheme is to help pupils
become better students, and also boost the local economies, and create
new jobs along the way.
Beside the strategic plan, Osinbajo would
also launch the “Global School Feeding Sourcebook: Lessons from 14
countries,” a joint Partnership for Child Development, the World Bank
and World Food Programme analysis of national school feeding programmes
from across the globe.