Home-grown feeding: FG distributes 339,652 utensils to schools in Kebbi
The Federal Government has distributed 339,652 sets of branded feeding utensils to public primary schools in Kebbi to improve hygiene and safety during meals.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Faruq, made this known on Thursday during the distribution exercise at Atiku Bagudu Science Model Primary School in Birnin Kebbi.
The minister, who was represented by the Director Procurement of the ministry, Alhaji Bello Alkali, said the distribution of the utensils was carried out under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
She said, “This activity today is another one out of the several strategic plans on the programme targeted at pupils to ensure best experiences of hygiene and safety during their consumption of these free meals.
“We are providing a total of 339,652 sets of branded feeding utensils for the use of the Kebbi State pupils on the NHGSFP.”
According to her, the NHGSFP is a social protection and poverty alleviation strategy which seeks to raise school enrolment, enhance school children nutrition, health, and boost local economic activities across thousands of communities in the country.
Umar-Faruq explained that the NGHSFP was mainly designed to address poverty in all its forms and was in collaboration with states government.
“On one hand, the federal government is responsible for generating the specific policies, designing the programme, setting the implementation strategies, guiding on the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment activities, and most importantly of course the release of funds.
“The state government on the other hand is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the programme including ensuring that data on schools and pupils are authentic in close partnership with the SUBEB and the NBS.
“This is in addition to identification and procurement of food items in the local areas, selection of cooks and vendors in the communities and ensuring that the food is properly cooked and adequate portions are timely served to the pupils.
“So far, the NHGSFP has recorded over nine million pupils being fed by over 100,000 cooks nationwide.
“Entrepreneurship and employment is being created within the school feeding ecosystem in sectors of women entrepreneurs, commodity transportation, farming and agricultural production and many other value-chain actors,” she said.
Umar-Faruq called on the schools to properly use the items for purpose they were meant for in order to improve hygiene and food safety.
The minister assured that the federal government and her ministry would continue to improve service delivery on all its social interventions, especially the national home-grown school feeding programme.
In his remarks, Gov. Atiku Bagudu, said the programme would assist greatly in reducing out- of-school children.
He added that the state used to have over 500,000 out-of-school children as at 2015, but the figure had now reduced drastically.
“We also have over 554,000 pupils in primary schools across the state.
“The state is the only state in the country feeding day students as part of efforts to increase enrolment and retention in the schools.
“We currently have 70 boarding schools that we are feeding and we have constructed six Tsangaya schools as well as 41 Nomadic schools,” he said.
Bagudu, represented by the Commissioner, Basic and Secondary Education, Alhaji Magawata Aleiro, thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and Umar-Faruq for initiating the programme in order to increase enrolment and retention of pupils in schools.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Prof. Suleiman Khalid, said that the home- grown feeding was critical the success of the government compulsory education policy.
“Our concern is to ensure that they are in schools, and the programme has been proven to be effective in the enrolment and retention of children in schools.
“The programme will also fight poverty and generate employment in the state,” he said.
One of the pupils, Hassana Bashir, thanked the federal and state governments for the gesture, saying, “90 per cent of the pupils come to school because of the feeding programme.”
The delegation of the ministry had a closed- door high- level engagement with the state government officials aimed at strengthening the implementation of the school feeding programme in the state.
