President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime spends N12billion on the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes (NHGSFP) monthly under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD).
This was made known by Dr Umar Bindir, the National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), of the Ministry, on Monday, at a two-day stakeholder’s consultative workshop on the development of a national policy for NHGSFP in Abuja.
He said the school feeding programme is very expensive as over 10 million children are fed at the rate of N100 meal per child as approved by President Buhari, NAN reports.
He said that the programme was a continuation of deliberate strategies of the NSIP to institutionalise the clusters.
“Today we are focusing on the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme with the support of the World Food Programme (WFP) to develop an inclusive policy for NHGSFP.
“This is to ensure that it is sustainable, measurable and highly impactful as directed by Mr President.
“As we speak we are feeding an average of 10 million children with the potential of that number increasing to 12 million probably in the next few weeks or months.
“Based on the impact of the programme – attracting children to school, ensuring the children are healthy, the children of the poor and vulnerable attending school longer it is necessary that the programme is sustained,” he said.
Also speaking, one of the participants, Onallo Akpa, Director–General, Poultry Association of Nigeria, said that the essence of the programme was to ensure that the children have a nutritious meal.