The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq, says Federal Government is targeting to enrol 14 million pupils for the National Home Grown School Feeding programme (NHGSFP) in 2023.
She said this during a Stakeholder’s Engagement on Enumeration of Beneficiaries and Scaling up of the programme in Uyo on Thursday.
Farouq, represented Dr Abubakar Suleiman, Director, Disaster Management in Humanitarian Ministry, noted that out of 1,165 public primary schools in the state, 889 of the public primary schools in the state had been captured in the NHGSFP.
“Over nine million pupils benefits from one free nutritious meal a day during school term nationwide and now we have the mandate to reach additional 5 million pupils by 2023.
“So, today, we are here in Akwa Ibom on the strength of our partnership and mutual recognition of the need to do more on the NHGSFP, to bring more Nigerians under the umbrella of the government’s sociable protection mechanism, to look at scaling up the numbers of the pupils benefiting from the programme as directed by His Excellency President Muhammadu,” Farouq said.
She said that the Federal Government recognised the social challenges in the country and decided to take proactive measures in fighting poverty and its attendance consequences.
Farouq said that they were in Akwa Ibom to strengthen the partnership and mutual recognition of the need to do more on the programme.
She called on Akwa Ibom Government and key stakeholders to jointly verify the existing numbers of the beneficiaries to up date the records for better effectiveness, transparency and accountability.
She promised to take the challenges of Akwa Ibom to the Federal Government, adding that attention would be given to all the issues of the state.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr Ini Adiakpan, commended the Federal Government for the programme and called for the upward review of the amount budgeted for the feeding programme to meet up with the current reality in the country.
In his remarks, Mr Godwin Akpan, the Vocal Person in Akwa Ibom, called on the involvement of the people in order to bring ownership to the Home Grown school feeding programme in the state.
Akpan said that 161, 575 primary 1 to 3 pupils benefited from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) of the Federal Government in Akwa Ibom.