Education

7.4m pupils benefitting school feeding programme – Osinbajo

 

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said, no fewer than 7.4 million pupils are benefitting from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) of the Federal Government.
Osinbajo, who was represented by Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, made the disclosure at a National Symposium on NHGSFP at the weekend in Abuja.
The symposium, organised in partnership with the National Social Investment Office, was in honour of the African Day of School Feeding.
NHSGSP is one of the pillars of the social investment efforts of the Federal Government.
“I am amazed at the level this wonderful programme has attained; this is a major success recorded.
“The programme provides a social safety net that improves the health and education of the poorest and most vulnerable children.
“NHSGSP is among our efforts to combat poverty; it is anchored on ensuring nutrition for our children.
“It is our attempt to reach the family unit in very real times; we have some good work in this regard; it is currently operating in 22 states in Nigeria with 7, 487, 441 pupils as beneficiaries.
“We must appreciate the micro-economic effect of this; it has engaged 75, 330 cooks; over 8000 persons are employed in the value chain– that helps in fighting poverty,” he said.
Mustapha said that there was need for all stakeholders to scale up their efforts at making the programme a huge success.
He called on all arms of government to strengthen their commitment to NHSGSP.
In her remarks, the Special Advisor to the President on Social Investments, Maryam Uwais, said that objective of the meeting was to showcase the current NHGSFP; its concept, process and challenges to generate the highest level of political commitment.
She said that the programme was functional in 22 states namely; Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, Kano, Kastina and Gombe.
“The others include National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP), N-Power, Government Enterprises and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
“All these programmes have achieved profound successes so far. One of the most important aspects of the social investment programmes is the millions of Nigerians who have and would benefit directly and indirectly from each of the various schemes.”
Mrs. Uwais said that through N-Power, 200,000 graduate beneficiaries were currently enrolled and working in various institutions around the country.
“So far, we have 455, 857 poor and vulnerable households uploaded onto the National Social Register, from which 297, 973 households have been mined and are being mined and being paid stipends in 20 states,” she said.

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