The Nasarawa State Government in North-central Nigeria has received 195,000 school feeding utensils from the Federal Government.
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development delivered the utensils through its National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in Lafia, the State capital.
The Minister, who was represented by the Deputy Director in the Ministry, Mr. Daguleng Ishaku Longyil, said NHGSFP was one of the 4 key interventions of the Federal Government under the National Social Investment Program which seeks to boost school enrolment, nutrition and local economic activities across thousands of communities in our Nation.
“This program at its core is designed to address poverty in all its forms and is a collaboration between the FG and State Government (SG), where the FG is responsible for release of funds, guidelines, policies, and monitoring, while the state carries out the day-to-day implementation including procurement of food items, selection of cooks and vendors who prepare, cook and serve the meals to the pupils.”
“The benefits of this program and its impact on the lives and livelihood of individuals, groups and communities is clear, evident and undeniable. While addressing cross-cutting issues of Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty, we have thus far recorded over 9 million pupils on the program being fed by over 100,000 cooks. Employment is also being created within the school feeding ecosystem across the value chain,” the Minister explained
According to her, the intervention is one out of the several strategic plans of the Ministry to ensure that the target pupils have the best experience of hygiene and safety during their consumption of these free meals.
Farouq therefore appealed to the State Government to ensure that the utensils are used judiciously.
For his part, the NSIP Focal Person, Nasarawa State Imran Usman Jibrin said the programme provides 1 free meal to over 9 million pupils in primary schools across the Nation.
“In Nasarawa State, we are providing funds to the State selected aggregators and 2768 vendors and to feed 194,649 pupils, in 745 Schools across the 13 LGAs. In that value chain alone, hundreds of jobs are created every day and people are earning.
“We have directives from Mr. President to add 5 million more pupils into the school feeding program. This is a progress and once we conclude our ongoing verification exercise here in Nasarawa State, we will be able to update our records.”
Jibrin urged the State Government to provide adequate budgetary support to the Nasarawa State School Feeding Program and the whole of the National Social Investment Program.
“The Federal Government provides funds for the feeding and the logistics of procuring, preparing, and serving the meals only.
“The state is expected to facilitate continuous sensitization of communities and individuals through the various structures on the importance of the program and the need for it to be safeguarded from all forms of corrupt practices by those who have been entrusted to prepare the meals, supply the food items, and even coordinate the activities.”
The Focal Person further stated that there’s need for adequate resources to ensure proper Monitoring of the activities of the various actors engaged by the State to ensure full compliance to guidelines.
