Hajiya Sadiya Umar- Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said the federal government will enroll approximately five million students in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program (NHGSFP) by 2023.
Farouq made the disclosure at a stakeholder meeting for beneficiary count and scale-up of NHGSFP in Zamfara.
This is contained in a statement by Ms. Halima Oyelade, Special Assistant for Corporate Communication to the Minister, Friday in Abuja.
“More than nine million students receive one free nutritious meal per day during the school year across the country.
“Now we have a mandate to reach an additional five million students by 2023.
” With over 100,000 employed cooks and over 100,000 smallholder farmers participating in this value chain, the NHGSFP has serious potential for socio-economic development and it needs to be strengthened, extended and sustained at the national level.
“I am pleased that the Zamfara and Federal NHGSFP teams as well as key stakeholders are working together and closely to verify the number of existing beneficiaries on the program and update records for better efficiency, transparency and accountability.
“To this end, while thanking the Zamfara government for their commitment to the implementation of the NHGSFP, I also want to encourage all of us to do more to ensure that more children benefit from this program,” she said.
She further explained that the NHGSFP was designed as a multi-faceted intervention to increase enrollment, improve student nutrition, support local food production, and encourage employment and income generation.
“More specifically, it aims to provide a nutritious meal to all students in public primary schools in grades 1 to 3”.
She said President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of tackling abject poverty was behind the decision to inaugurate the National Social Investment Program which included NHGSFP, N-Power, conditional cash transfer and the public enterprise and empowerment program. (NAN)
