Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development has commenced the release of funds for the Second School Term under the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme across the country.
This is contained in a statement to Radio Nigeria in Dutse, the Jigawa State Capital by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr. Nasir Sani Gwarzo.
He explained that funds for the first cycle of feeding in 2023 were being released to state governments and appointed vendors across participating schools for the provision of free meals to enrolled pupils, encourage enrollment, and support their nutrition.
According to him, the school feeding program is an initiative of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration aimed at providing one nutritious meal to pupils of primary 1 to 3 in public schools.
Dr. Nasir Sani Gwarzo further said, through the homegrown school feeding program, state governments were responsible for ensuring meals are being prepared and served to pupils using funds released by the federal government.
He pointed out that, every feeding cycle was to last twenty days in a month as well as five days in a week, noting that currently, the program is feeding close to ten million pupils in over fifty thousand public primary schools.
Gwarzo said the Minister, of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouk who advised participating State Governments to ensure good service delivery by the actors involved, urged that funds released were being utilized according to the program design.
The Permanent Secretary, therefore urged the public, parents, headmasters and teachers, non-governmental organizations, and civil society organizations to report any compliance issues through the ministry’s reporting application.
COV/USMAN MZ