By Chimezie Godfrey
The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced its intention to ensure that more children are captured in its social protection programmes in line with the aspirations of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq Umar made this known during a courtesy visit to the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel on Thursday.
The Minister who was represented by the Zonal Monitor of the National Home-Grown School Feeding program, Dr Abubakar Sulaiman said that an additional 5 million pupils were being targeted by 2023 to add to the already 9 million pupils benefiting from the daily free nutritious meal during school term nationwide.
He said,”Today, we are here in Akwa Ibom State on the strength of our partnership and mutual recognition of the need to do more on the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme NHGSFP, to bring more Nigerians under the umbrella of the Government’s social protection mechanism, to look at scaling up the number of the pupils benefiting from the Program.”
With over 100,000 cooks employed and more than 100,000 small holder farmers participating in this value chain, Sulaiman said that the NHGSFP is a serious potential for socio-economic development if strengthened and sustained nationwide.
The Federal Government also confirmed that it will continue to work with State and Federal NHGSFP teams as well as key stakeholders such as the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Education, National Orientation Agency, National Population Commission, National Youth Service Corp, UBEC and State Education boards for effective results.
“We are working jointly and closely to verify the existing number of beneficiaries on the program and update the records for better effectiveness, transparency and accountability,” he said.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor ably represented by the Commissioner of Women Affairs, Dr. Ini Adiakpan thanked the Federal Government for its foresight and consistency in reaching out to the vulnerable.
She promised that the state government will continue to play its part in ensuring that the initiative records a 100% success.
At the event, the Zonal Monitor and the Project Task Team of the NHGSFP held a meeting with the state Project Task Team where enumeration exercise forms were presented to the State Director of National Orientation Agency.
