Press Release: School Feeding Programme – Over 8.2M Pupils Now Being Fed in 24 States

*Over 80,000 cooks engaged in 45,394 schools

Following the achievement of its target of 5.5 million pupils being fed free daily under the programme in 2017, the Buhari administration’s National Home-grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) now feeds 8,260,984 pupils in 45,394 public primary schools across 24 states.

The 24 states currently benefitting from the school feeding programme are Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Ondo and Borno.

Similarly, over 80,000 direct jobs have since been created from the School Feeding Programme; with 87,261 cooks currently engaged in the 24 participating states. All 36 states of the Federation and the FCT will eventually benefit from the programme.

The programme’s educational, economic and health benefits have been praised by many.

Not only has the Buhari administration’s School Feeding Programme created jobs for thousands of Nigerians in these communities where the programme is being implemented, it has also helped to boost local economies by linking the local farmers to the school feeding market.

Similarly, the school feeding programme continues to record significant milestones in the classrooms as the scheme has led to an increase in enrolment.

Another important aspect of the School Feeding Programme is that by providing a meal a day for millions of pupils, it addresses the issues of malnutrition and stunting among children, increasing the chances of the pupils making a significant headway in their learning and in life.

The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in 28 States in the coming months, and all over the country soon after.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
23rd May, 2018

Press Release: Press Release: The National School Feeding Programme now feeds over 5 Million Pupils Daily; Collaborates with Ministry of Health for De-worming Exercise

In furtherance of its goal to tackle poverty and hunger, and to create jobs for Nigerians in line with its inclusive growth plan, the Buhari administration’s National Home-Grown School Feeding (NHGSF) Programme is now in 19 states across the federation. They include Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa and Niger states.

So far, over five million pupils (5,226,039) in 28,249 schools in these states are currently been fed under the programme, while Kano and Katsina states are expected to be added to the beneficiaries states in the coming weeks.

Also, over 50,000 cooks are currently engaged under the programme.

The school feeding programme, which is part of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s N500 billion National Social Investment Programmes, NSIP, has a target to feed 5.5 million schoolchildren by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, the School Feeding Programme is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states currently under the NHGSFP in the country.

At least 243 Local Government Areas will benefit from the deworming exercise in the 17 states, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Niger, Osun, Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Anambra, Benue, Imo, Kano, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Delta and Plateau states.

The integrated programme, which is scheduled for the first and second week of December in these states, will deliver three different drugs for the treatment of diseases endemic to specific states; particularly schistosomiasis; soil-transmitted helminths and river blindness/onchocerciasis. The drugs to be distributed are Albendazole, Ivermectin and Parazaquintel.

Supported by the Federal Government, three facilitators would be within the states for the period to achieve these objectives and ensure that the pupils in these states are dewormed.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
20 November 2017