The Nigerian federal Government have reported that Over 4m school pupils now eating one free meal a day, with about 25,771 schools now benefitting from the programme. Also, N5,000 monthly Conditional Cash Transfer now funded in 16 states for 115,000 Nigerians.
Three
more states have been added to the National Home Grown School Feeding
Programme, with an additional one million children now benefitting from
it. They are Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Niger states.
This brings
to 17 the number of states currently participating in the School
Feeding Programme, a crucial part of President Muhammadu Buhari
administration’s Social Investment Programmes, SIP, aimed at tackling
poverty and hunger, as well as creating jobs for Nigerians.
The
other 14 states already on the programme are Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun,
Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba and
Kaduna.
So far, in Cross River state, 117,750 children in 973
schools are being fed under the programme, while in Akwa Ibom, there are
171,732 children in 1,101 schools being fed. Niger State has a total of
710,880 being fed in 2,411 schools in the state.
In total, 4,773,064 schoolchildren in 25,771 schools in 17 states are currently benefitting from the school feeding programme.
This
is a notable increase from the previous total of 2,918,842
schoolchildren from 19,881 schools in 14 states that had benefitted from
the programme.
About 34,869 direct jobs have since been created
from the School Feeding Programme across the participating states. In
Cross River state, for example, 1,384 cooks have been engaged, while
1,309 cooks are currently engaged in Akwa Ibom State, and 5,924 cooks
are engaged under the programme in Niger State.
Meanwhile, few
days after the United Nations designated 17th October as the
International Day for Eradication of Poverty, thousands of Nigerians
identified poorest and most vulnerable have received the monthly
Conditional Cash Transfer in Plateau and Cross River states.
About
115,000 beneficiaries are now being funded with the monthly N5,000
stipend in 16 states; including Borno, Cross River, Niger, Kwara, Ekiti,
Kogi, Oyo, Osun, Plateau, Bauchi, Anambra, Jigawa, Taraba and Adamawa.
There
are reported disbursement hitches in Benue and Anambra states, and they
are being addressed. This mainly has to do with non-opening of bank
accounts and enrolling beneficiaries. It is expected that by the end of
next month the hitches would have been completely resolved and the
beneficiaries in position to receive the cash transfers in those states.
The
CCT scheme directly supports those within the lowest poverty bracket by
improving nutrition, increasing household consumption and supporting
the development of human capital through cash benefits to various
categories of the poorest and most vulnerable.
The School Feeding
Programme and Conditional Cash Transfer schemes are two of the Buhari
administration’s N500 billion Social Investment Programmes, SIPs, aimed
at improving the lives of ordinary Nigerians nationwide through welfare
and empowerment programmes.
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
23th October, 2017