The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has deployed a task force to Ebonyi state to unravel and tackle some of the fallouts from the school feeding program.
This is geared towards strengthening and institutionalizing the program introduced under the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday, the Honorable Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq said that the verification and enrolment drive across the country is targeted at not just the schools or benefiting pupils but also the vendors to ensure an efficient operation.
As schools prepare for the new academic session, the Minister said,
“We have embarked on an enumeration exercise with a view to verifying the existing data of the benefitting pupils on the program as provided by each benefiting state, update our database with accurate data and ultimately scale up the program to reach more beneficiaries across the Nation.”
To ensure an all round efficiency, the Ministry has continued to partner with all relevant agencies and parastatals to ensure adequate sensitisation, data capturing and execution.
“We have therefore devised this as a multi sectoral intervention with partners such as the the State National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) officers, National Orientation Agency, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), National Population Commission of Nigeria, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Universal Basic Education across the states’, Farouk said.
The FG through the Ebonyi State Coordinator, Sunday Mbam revealed that 95m Naira was spent in the year under review with 64,301 pupils as beneficiaries.
Mbam expressed optimism that the exercise will totally tackle and address the challenges confronting the programme in the state as well as open a vista to accommodate more schools.
Plans are in top gear to enrol additional 5 million pupils into its National Home Grown School Feeding Programme by 2023.
NNEKA IKEM ANIBEZE
SA MEDIA
