96 000 pupils to benefit from School Feeding in Kwara
By Tunde Akanbi, Ilorin
The Home Grown School Feeding Programme of the Nigerian government will take care of about 96,666 pupils in primary 1 to 3 in Kwara state public schools.
The programme is expected to take off soon in the state.
The state Focal Person for the National Social Investments Programmes, NSIP, Hajia Bashira Abdulrazaq-Sanusi made this known when she was speaking at a one day training programme organised for 100 Independent Monitors recruited for the scheme.
Abdulrazaq-Sanusi, said that no fewer than 4,500 rural women food vendors have been medically screened for the school feeding programme.
She said that the Nigerian Government had designed the programme to feed Primary 1 to 3 pupils while Kwara state government would provide free meal for pupils in Primary 4 to 6.
She disclosed that the NSIP has supported more than four million beneficiaries across the country through a fair transparent process.
Abdulrazaq-Sanusi said the programme was also supported by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and many other MDAs.
She explained that the NSIP include NPower, Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme ,GEEP, and Home Grown School Feeding Programme HGSFP.
She also said that one of the thrusts of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
Independent Monitors
The Focal Person said the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar recently flagged off the on-boarding of 5,000 Independent Monitors for various NSIP in the country.
She explained that it is her expectation that the process would strengthen the implementation of the programmes as well as provide data for evidence-based decision making.
The Focal Person explained that after the training, the monitors will be assigned to monitor programme beneficiaries within their locality in schools, households, market clusters with the aim of ensuring that the primary objectives of these programmes are achieved.
She said that one of the key roles of the Independent Monitors was to assess the contractors’ compliance with the terms and conditions of the compliance agreement to ensure that the contractor performs its obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner.
Abdulrazaq-Sanusi explained further that the importance of Monitors cannot be overemphasised as they are expected to be the ears and the eyes of the government on ground.
“Working with a just conscience is the hallmark of any thriving society, so I will like to implore you all to pay attention to your trainers and be committed to goals and objectives of the programmes while urging you all to be conscientious in the delivery of our service” she said.
She stated that the essence of monitoring was to correct the abnormalities seen on the field and appeal to the team to justify their incorporation into the system.
Also speaking, the Team Lead for the training, Hajia Safiya Sanni, said the main essence of the monitoring team was to monitor the way in which the activities were being discharged and write reports about it.
She warned the Independent Monitors not to be serving as supervisor or taking advantage of their role to extort money from the beneficiaries on the field.
Sanni added that the Independent Monitors are also being monitored as the programme has already been reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for transparency.
Confidence Okwuchi
