School Feeding Programme: FG to verify number of primary schools

The Federal Government is to verify number of primary schools presented by State governments and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq stated this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.

READ ALSO: B’Haram: Take a cue from Chadian President, PDP tells Buhari

“The main challenge facing the NHGSFP is the inaccurate number of primary schools we have across the country.

“We had an earlier data or figure we were using but there were so many complaints and NBS was asked to come in.

“So we want to resolve the number of primary schools presented by the state governments and the ones by NBS.

”We have to verify the actual number of the schools across the country.

“We also had a discussion with state governments and came up with the best modality to continue the NHGSFP even as the schools are closed.

“The modality is Food Rationing. This is because, currently, the pupils are not in school.

“So instead of cooked meals, we are going to identify the households where the pupils come from and take this one month food ration to them using vouchers,” Farouq said.

On the N20, 000 Conditional Cash Transfer to beneficiaries, the minister explained that the National Social Register had been put in place where the poor and vulnerable households were captured since 2016.

According to her, it is an existing programme which is N5, 000 per month to each beneficiary.

“But because of Mr President’s directive that we should pay two months in advance that is why it is up to N20, 000 which is for four months.

“We are giving cash now because, this is what we met on ground, but in the next payment circle it will be digital; we are working on it,” she said.

Speaking on the distribution of food items to the poor, Farouq said there was a committee on ground led by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which comprise of all the critical stakeholders in the country.

According to her, the committee will handle the distribution of food stuff from national to local government level.

She also hinted that 400,000 new beneficiaries of the N-Power would be enrolled soon.