By Chimezie Godfrey
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq has said that the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme will be up scaled to accommodate additional 5 million pupils to the 9 million it is currently feeding.
She disclosed this during a courtesy call to Alhaji Ahmed Matane, Secretary to the Niger State Government in Minna.
Represented by Mr. Hezekiah Sunday, Assistant Director in the Ministry, she said, they were in the state to enumerate the pupils of the school feeding programme.
Farouq said,”We are here in Niger State on the strength of our partnership and mutual recognition of the need to do more on the NHGSFP, to bring more Nigerians under the umbrella of the Government’s social protection mechanism, to look at scaling up the numbers of the pupils benefiting from the Program as directed by His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari”.
She noted that the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme had employed over 100,000 small holder farmers participating in the value chain.
The Governor of Niger State Alhaji Abubakar Bello represented by Alhaji Ahmed Matane, assured that the state will continue to give the necessary support to NSIP.
He lauded the Ministry for its continous partnership and support to the states through the provision of relief materials to internally displaced persons and flood victims.
He called on the Ministry to include primary four to six in order to give the children a sence of belonging and to motivate them to attend school.
According to him, feeding some and leaving others will create demotivation and conflicts in the school.
The Focal Person for Niger State Hajia Amina Gu’ar said that about 2,087 schools in the state were currently participating in the school feeding programme out of 3,038 schools.
In a similar development, the Minister represented by. Mrs Dinatu Wuyah paid a courtesy call to the Governor of Plateau State Simon Lalong represented by the
Secretary to the State Government SSG Dr. Danladi Atu, on the enumeration exercise of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.