FG extends one free meal a day to pupils in 7 states

THE Federal Government has said that it has now released enough funds to start the serving of one hot meal a day to more than one million primary school pupils across seven states in the country, under the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

According to a statement issued by Vice President’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in Abuja on Monday, a total sum of N844, 360, 550 has so far been released for the commencement of the programme in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Zamfara as at the end of last week.

It said even though funds have been released to the seven states to kick off the programme, not all of them have actually started the implementation.

It pointed out that Anambra, Enugu, Osun, Ogun, and Oyo have started, while implementation is expected to start this week in Ebonyi and Zamfara.

“That means, the Buhari Presidency’s Homegrown School Feeding Programme would be feeding this week a total of 1, 043, 205 pupils in those seven states,” the statement said.

It added that a total number of 11,775 cooks have now been employed to prepare the meals in the states.

The statement further said: “Of all the states, Anambra, which was the first state to receive Federal Government funding late last year has now received three full funding tranches covering 30 school days, totaling N188, 769,000. The State has a total of 937 cooks and feeding 96,489 pupils.

“In Ebonyi, Federal Government have also released a total of N115, 218, 600, while 1466 cooks have been engaged and 164, 598 pupils are to be fed.

“Also in Enugu State, FG have released N67, 244, 800 to feed 96, 064 pupils and 1128 cooks engaged.

“In Ogun State, FG have released N119, 648, 900 to feed 170, 927 pupils and engaged 1381 cooks, while in Osun a total of N92, 425, 400 have been released to feed 142, 193 pupils with 2688 cooks engaged.

“For Oyo State, a total of N72, 288, 300 have been released by the FG to feed 103, 269 pupils, engaging 1437  cooks, while in Zamfara FG have released a total sum of N188, 765, 500 to feed 269, 665 pupils and engaged 2, 738 cooks.”