FG budgets N999m for daily feeding of 10 million pupils

The federal government has revealed the disbursement of N999 million for daily feeding of 10 million school pupils in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

The NHGSFP team lead, Aishatu Digil, at a stakeholder meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, disclosed that approval has been given to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Farouq, to spend N100 per pupil per day. She clarified that the N100 be spent daily on feeding each of the 9,990,862 school pupils in 20 days of a month.

Aishatu Digil highlighted: “Previously, we were feeding schoolchildren for N70 per child, per meal. This has been going on since 2016, but the President has approved a N100 upward review.

“We are deliberating on the disbursement modalities with all stakeholders, including the World Food Programme, National Bureau of Statistics, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), ministries of agriculture, education, and others.

“Every Wednesday, we plan to have ‘Egg Wednesday,’ in which each child in the program will be given one egg… Cooks receive N10 stipends, while supervisors receive N5 and N6 for micronutrient fortification.”