THE Presidency, on Sunday, announced that N375 million has been released for the feeding of about 700,000 pupils in five states under its school feeding programme.
A statement issued by Laolu Akande, the spokesman of the Vice President, in Abuja, said the money was released to pay 7,909 cooks in the affected states for the feeding of a total of 677,476 primary school pupils.
According to the breakdown given by the Presidency, Ogun State got a total of N119,648, 900 paid to 1,381 cooks to feed 170,927 pupils, Ebonyi State got N115,218, 600 paid to 1,466 cooks to feed 164, 598 pupils and Anambra State got N67.5 million paid to 937 cooks to feed 96,489 pupils.
Oyo State got N72.2 million paid to 1437 cooks to feed 103, 269 pupils while Osun State got N867,370 paid to 2,688 to feed 142, 193 pupils.
It disclosed that the money was paid directly to the cooks and cover 10 days of school.
The statement also said that almost all states of the federation are now being processed for the payment of N30,000 monthly stipends to 200,000 graduates, the N-Power beneficiaries.
The statement noted that the amount released would increase to N631 million when Zamfara and Enugu states are expected to be paid N188.7 million and N67.2 million respectively.
In Zamfara State, the sum would be paid to 2,738 cooks to feed 269, 665 pupils while in Enugu State, the sum would be paid to 1,128 cooks to feed 96, 064 pupils.
On N-Power, the statement said that the process of payments of verified graduates who are beneficiaries has advanced and at different stages of progress in all but two states, noting that more and more of such beneficiaries are posting their glad experiences of receiving alerts on the social media.
This means that payment of the December 2016 stipends, which has gone across the country, would be completed in all states except two that did not meet the extended deadline for the verification process for December 2016 stipends.
While noting that the processing of January stipends are also in advanced stages, the statement assured some beneficiaries who have issues to remain patient.
It observed that quite a number of the beneficiaries have banking information irregularities, adding that the payment of the unemployed graduates which has created a huge buzz across the country, especially, on the social media, is being done in batches.
On the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), it said payments had continued in the nine pilot states of Bauchi, Borno, Niger, Kogi, Cross Rivers, Osun, Oyo Ekiti and Kwara states.
“While payment challenges are being experienced with the banks in some of the states, beneficiaries continue to receive their stipends which is being paid for two months- a total sum of N10,000 are being paid for the CCT beneficiaries to cover the months of December and January,” the Presidency said.
It added that CCT payments would be done six times in a year, with a payment of N10,000 to cover two months.