Buhari govt to feed 3 million school children in Nigeria

The Buhari administration says the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) for primary school pupils will resume on Thursday, May 14, 2020.

It will take off in Abuja and subsequently Lagos, Ogun and other states.

The federal government announced that a total of 3,131,971 households are targeted for the intervention.

Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, made the disclosure in a statement by her spokesman, Salisu Dambatta on Tuesday.

Farouq explained that the resumption of the feeding scheme followed a presidential directive.

She said each household would receive a Take-Home Ration (THR) valued at N4,200 which is made up of 5 kg Bag of Rice, 5 kg Bag of Beans, 500 ml Vegetable Oil, 750 ml Palm Oil, 500 mg Salt, 15 pcs of eggs, and 140gm Tomato Paste.

“The provision of take-home rations will be carried out based on data provided and structures put in place by the feeding programme over the years. Kwara and Bayelsa where the programme was not fully operational before the lockdown will benefit from the modified programme.

“The target beneficiaries are children in primary one to three in public schools participating in the programme. Parents/caregivers of beneficiaries are to collect the take-home rations using vouchers. We are employing vouchers which are QR coded, serialised with date and time-stamp.

“Identified households will be able to access take-home rations from distribution centers. Each will receive uncooked food items that have been assessed and approved by nutrition experts as adequate for the children. 6,000 schools will serve as distribution centers, except in some states with unique security and safety issues”, the statement added.