The Federal Government’ s Home Grown
School Feeding Programme has commenced
in Kaduna State on July 25, a director in the
State Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology, Mr. John Gora, says.
Gora, who oversees the programme, said on
Monday in Kaduna that about 800,000
pupils would be fed at N70 per meal.
According to him, the government will
spend about N56m daily, N280m a week
and N1.1bn every month in feeding the
pupils.
The director said that out of the 20,146
vendors shortlisted for the programme, only
9,000 would participate.
“Based on the arrangement, the federal
government will feed primary one to three
pupils, while the state government will feed
primary four to six pupils.
“However if you remember, in 2016, when
the programme was implemented in the
state, the state government fed all the pupils
from primary one to primary six at the cost
of over N10bn.
“It shouldered the responsibility of the
federal government on the agreement that
the federal government would refund to the
state the amount it spent on feeding
primary one to three pupils.
“The amount was about seven billion and so
far, the federal government has refunded
N3.5bn to the state.”
Gora said that as soon as the federal
government refund the remaining balance,
the state would commence the feeding of
primary 4-6 pupils. He said that the 20,146
vendors were supposed to provide services
to both the state and the federal
government components.
“So far, only 9000 vendor accounts have
been verified, while the remaining vendors
are being processed.
“I am sure we will complete the verification
process before the state government’s
component comes on stream,’’ the director
said.
He acknowledged that the programme was,
however, experiencing some challenges.
“From the report on my table, some vendors
were posted to different communities, far
away from home and this is a problem for
us.
“For example, some vendors were posted to
a primary school in Maraban Jos instead of
schools in their community as planned.
“Out of suspicion, the parents of the pupils
stopped their children from eating the food
on the grounds that the vendors were not
from that community and so should not be
trusted.
“We are however doing all we can to
address this and other challenges,’’ Gora
added.
Meanwhile, Dr Adebayo Dotun, the
programme’s Operation Manager, said that
more than 200 people were being trained
to monitor and ensure the success of the
programme.
“After the one-day training, these trainees
would go out to the field to ensure that the
women are cooking, the quality of the food
is adequate, the quantity and hygiene are
maintained,’’ Dotun said.
