Story from Sa’adatu MAINA, Damaturu
Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, says 14 million primary school pupils will benefit from the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) by 2023.
Farouq disclosed this on Thursday at a stakeholders’ engagement on enumeration of beneficiaries and scaling up of the programme in Damaturu, Yobe.
She said presently, over 9 million primary school pupils were enrolled in the programme across the country, adding that the ministry had given the approval to enrol additional 5 million pupils by 2023.
The Minister, represented by the North-East Monitor, Alhaji Ali Grema, said there were over 100, 000 cooks engaged under the scheme in the country, and over 100,000 small scale farmers participating in the value chain.
“The NHGSFP was designed as a multifaceted intervention to drive school enrollment, boost the nutrition of the pupils, support local production of food and encourage employment and income generation.
“It is aimed at the provision of nutritious meals to all pupils in public primary schools in class one to three to achieve this objective,” Farouq said.
She said the engagement was aimed at capturing new pupils under the second batch of the programme as pupils on the first batch would be laid off by September when they would be in class four.
The Minister commended the state government for its support and cooperation for the successful implementation of the programme.
Earlier, the state’s Programme Manager, Hajiya Fatsuma Accama, said there were 106, 797 pupils enrolled in the scheme across the 17 local government areas of the state.
She said 215 cooks were engaged under the programme and they were provided with kitchen utensils by the state government.
Accama said the state government had also funded monitoring and validation of the cooks, provided pupils with bowls and spoons and ensured that its nutrition committee designed meals with approval of the national office.
Neptune Prime reports that participants of the engagement included the Programme Consultant, officials of the state Universal Basic Education Board, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, among others.
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