Home Feeding For Schoolchildren Begins As Parents Collect Pupils’ Rations

The Federal Government has officially commenced its home feeding programme for schoolchildren in Nigeria.
It flagged-off the programme on Thursday at the Central Science Primary School in Kuje, a suburb in Abuja.

This came as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, who kicked-off the scheme in Abuja, said the Federal Government was spending hundreds of millions of naira daily on the programme.

She said:

“It is a lot of money because we are targeting 3.1 million households all over the country.”

When probed further to provide an estimate, the minister replied, “I told you it is in hundreds of millions.

“We are targeting 3.1 million households and you should expect a large sum of money but I cannot tell you precisely the amount that we spend.”

She described the scheme as the modified National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, adding that it was funded by the Federal Government but implemented by the states.

“Hunger is a serious by-product of this pandemic crisis, which is why from the onset the ministry has been evolving strategies to facilitate humanitarian interventions,” Umar-Farouq stated.

She said her ministry, in consultation and collaboration with state governments, identified the distribution of Take-Home Rations to the households of the children on the programme as a feasible method of achieving this directive after exploring several options.