By Innocent Unoh
The federal government says it has spent about N6.6t for the National Home Grown School Feeding Program. It also disclosed that an estimated 2.9 million school children from about twenty thousand schools in the 14 pilot states of the federation have benefited directly from the program.
The feeding program is part of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s N500 billion Social Investment Programs, SIPs, which have targeted to feed 5.5 million school children before the end of 2017.A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, explained that “the huge amount of money has been disbursed since the school feeding programme kicked off late last year.
According to the statement, “With 3,325 schools, Kaduna State has the highest number of schools so far covered under the program, as well as the highest number of schoolchildren (estimated at 8.4m) who have been fed. It is closely followed by Benue State where 2,220 schools have been covered and 240,827 schoolchildren have been fed.
Zamfara State also recorded a high number, with 1,952 schools covered and 198,788 pupils fed under the program. Similarly, Bauchi State recorded impressive figures with 1,904 schools already covered, while 307,013 schoolchildren in the state have so far benefitted from the program. Also,1,850 schools have been covered and 151,438 pupils have been fed in Osun State.
In the same vein, 1,479 schools have been covered and 171,835 pupils fed so far in Taraba State; while 1,403 schools have been covered in Oyo State, where 107,983 pupils have been fed. In Anambra State, 807 schools have been covered and 103,742 schoolchildren fed so far, while in Enugu State, 108,898 pupils in 622 schools have been fed. In Ebonyi State, the school feeding programme has so far covered 1,050 schools and 163,137 schoolchildren have been fed. In Ogun State, 903 schools have so far been covered with 231,660 pupils fed. Also, a total of 95,134 schoolchildren in 882 schools have been fed in Plateau State.
Delta and Abia states recorded 742 schools each, with 141,663 and 61,316 schoolchildren fed respectively. With the commencement of a new academic session last month, it is expected that more schools will benefit from the program, as more states would be added to the list, in line with the federal government target to reach 5.5 million schoolchildren by the end of 2017.
