FG to address hitches surrounding school feeding

THE Federal Government on Tuesday promised to address identified hitches surrounding its Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Budget and Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, during her one-day working tour Ogun State.

Tribune Online recalled that the state is one of the few states where the social intervention programme of the Muhammadu Buhari -led administration had taken off.

The minister who monitored the programme at St Paul’s Demonstration School, Onikolobo, Abeokuta, said the visit was part of the FG’s monitoring of special intervention programmes in the state.

She assured that all the problems associated with payment of food vendors directly would be looked into to ensure the success of the programme.

The minister said, “We have received some complains and we are addressing it. You know this is the second month of this programme and we insist that the cooks are paid directly. Some of the Bank Verification Numbers that are sent to us are not verified by the nation’s inter bank segment. We have to send it back to them and register them all over again.

By the time we have everyone on the payment platform,  payment will be seamless.”

She expressed satisfaction with quality of food served on the pupils promising that the programme would soon take off in other part of the state and other states of the federation.

“Am very impressed with what am seeing, the school environment is very conducive. The food they serve the kids is very tasty am told that the school enrolment has increased because of the feeding programme.

“The quality of the food I saw is balanced and nutritious which means the children will have better learning and results. Our mission is to make sure we role out that every school is covered and the state and the Federal Government is working closely on this.”

In his remarks, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, lauded the initiative of the FG on the school feeding programme saying good nutrition would aid easy learning process.