The federal government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has handed over 195,000 feeding utensils to the Nasarawa state government for the use of the benefitting pupils of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program (NHGSFP), under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).
The minister, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, who was represented at the event held at Ta’al Model Primary School, Lafia, by the Deputy Director, Audit, Mr. Daguleng Ishaku Longyil, said that, in Nasarawa State alone, the government is providing funds to the selected aggregators and 2,768 cooks; in order to feed 194,649 pupils in 745 schools across the 13 LGAs of the state.
She said: “As we may all know, the NHGSFP is one of the 4 key interventions of the Federal Government, under NSIP, which seeks to boost school enrollment, child nutrition and local economic activities across thousands of communities in the country. “This program at its core is designed to address poverty in all its forms and is a collaboration between the FG and States where the FG is responsible for the release of funds, guidelines, policies, and monitoring, while the states carry out the day-to-day implementation including procurement of food items, selection of cooks and vendors who prepare, cook and serve the meals for the pupils. “The benefits of this program and its impact on the lives and livelihood of individuals, groups and communities is clear, evident and undeniable. While addressing cross cutting issues of hunger, malnutrition and poverty, we have thus far recorded over 9 million pupils on the program being fed by over 100,000 cooks across the nation. In Nasarawa State alone, we have 2,768 vendors, feeding 194,649 pupils in 745 schools across the 13 LGAs in the state.”
She added: “We are pleased to note that we have also commenced deployment of interventions within the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program that will address the identified gaps including a nationwide enumeration exercise across the Nation with the objective of verifying the existing data, upgrading the quality of data, and updating our records to accommodate the scaling up of the program with an additional 5 million beneficiaries as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. “Additionally an operational review is underway, fully supported by experts and technical partners to ensure sure that this program succeeds in its objectives and capitalizes on gains and benefits such as women empowerment, supporting the education of the girl child, creating employment, and improving intergovernmental collaboration. Furthermore, we have deployed an extensive, layered and technology-supported monitoring system that will give us real time information of how the program is being implemented and the areas that need urgent intervention and correction.”
Also speaking during a high-level engagement with the state Governor, Engr Abdullahi Sule, represented by his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Hon Murtala Lamus, the minister sought the support of the state government to achieve the objectives of the NSIP and President Buhari’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
She said: “We have recently launched the Batch C N-power which is aimed at helping over 1 million unemployed Nigerian Youths to gain useful experience and technical skills that they can convert into small business to further support themselves. This is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives for the expansion of the program to accommodate an additional 5million beneficiaries
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“We have directives from Mr. President to add 5 million more pupils into the school feeding program. This is a progress and once we conclude our ongoing verification exercise here in Nasarawa State, we will be able to update our records. This is why we are also today seeking to inform you of these great things that are happening in the Nation and in Nasarawa State. This platform is also for us to seek your further support on strengthening the implementation of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program.
“As a collaborative effort, the Federal Government and the State Government have a shared responsibility and specific roles on the provision of these free meals to the children. On our part, we provide the funds and the guidelines needed to drive the program, while the State Government is responsible for the implementation. There are areas that we wish to propose for His Excellency to consider deploying additional support in order to ensure that the school feeding program delivers on its objectives in the best possible ways.”
On his part, the Focal Person of NSIP in Nasarawa, Imran Usman Jibrin, said that the programme started in the state in 2019 and has been improving since then.
He said: “The Programme started in Nasarawa State in 2019 with a total number of 1,200 cooks and 86,329 pupils. At present, we have a total number of 2,768 cooks and 194,649 pupils benefitting from the Programme. A total amount of N1, 497, 766, 747 was expended in Nasarawa State under the Programme from January 2019- October 2021.
“This huge amount of money being pumped by the Federal Government has positively impacted on the lives of all the beneficiary-chain ranging from the vendors, the suppliers, the cooks and the pupils. In addition to this, the ministry provides customised feeding utensils for the Programme, to which additional utensils will be handed over to the State to compliment the existing numbers.
“The state governor is taking all necessary steps for a smooth implementation of the NSIP in Nasarawa State and domestication of some of the Programmes. In such efforts, the State Conditional Cash Transfer Programme was kick-started in March 2021 with a pilot number of 3,800 beneficiaries cutting the 13 LGAs of the State, getting a N5,000 monthly stipend. So far, we have done 7 cycles of payment.
“We commend the Honourable Minister for the approval given to capture the remaining over 600 schools in the State that were not captured earlier during the Enumeration and Enrolment Exercise.”
