10 million children to benefit from FG’s schools feeding programme
At least 10 million primary school pupils across the country will benefit from the newly- introduced school feeding programme initiated by the federal government and tagged “Buhari food for the children.”
This was disclosed by Senator Chris Ngige, the minister of Labour and Employment, in an interview in Awka, Vanguard reports.
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According to him, while five million pupils from Primary 1 -3 would be catered for by the federal government under the programme, the states were expected to feed another five million from Primary 4 -6 through a counterpart funding programme.
Ngige said the programme had begun in eight states, including Anambra state.
The minister noted that it was important that Nigerians to know that ‘it is Buhari food for the children’ which, according to him, was part of measures to cushion hardship faced by parents.
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While urging other states to key into the programme in view of its benefits to the Nigerian children, Ngige said that Kaduna and Osun states were already embarking on the programme before it was introduced nationally.
He said: “To whom much is given, much is also expected. For the federal government to use Anambra as one of the states to begin the school feeding programme shows that President Buhari considers Anambra a very important state. We therefore call on the Anambra state government to fulfill its part of the agreement without delay.”
Recall that the vice-president of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, had revealed on Tuesday, September 1, 2016 that the Buhari administration will soon start giving out free meals to school children, therefore fulfilling one of the president's campaign promises.
Osinbajo said that the free meals scheme was a core project of the federal government that would in turn yield about 1.14 million jobs and an increase in food production.
Last month, the school feeding programme commenced in Anambra state according to a statement from Laolu Akande, the spokesperson for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Source: Legit.ng
