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 State 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 utensils distribution 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.
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“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 enrollment, enhance school children nutrition, health, and boost local economic activities across thousands of communities in the country.
Faruq explained that the NGHSFP was mainly designed to address poverty in all its forms and was a close implementation collaboration between the Federal Government and the State 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 9 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.
Faruq called on the schools to properly use the items that these items are purpose they were meant 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 on this national home-grown school feeding program.
In his remarks, Gov. Atiku Bagudu said that the programme would assist greatly in reducing out of school children, adding that the state had over 500,000 out of school children when he took over in 2015 but the figure had now reduced drastically in the state.
“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 efforts increase enrolment and retention in the schools.
“We currently have 70 boarding schools that we are feeding and we have constructed six Tsangaya school 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 minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development for initiating the home grown feeding program in order to increase enrollment and retention of the 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 part of the state government’s critical mandate to enable compulsory education to pupils in the state.
“Our concern is to ensure that they are in schools,and the programme has been proven to be effective in the enrollment and retention of children in schools.
” The programme will also fight poverty and generate employment in the state,” he said.
One of the pupils in the school, Hassana Bashir, thanked the FG and state government for the gesture done to them, saying,” 90 per cent of the pupils come to school because of the feeding programme.”
The delegation of the ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development also had a closed- door high- level engagement with the state government aimed at strengthening the implementation of the national home- grown school feeding programme in the state.
