FG is not spending N679m on school feeding- Minister of Humanitarian Affairs

Contrary to widespread claims that the Government is intending to spend the sum of N679m on its homegrown school feeding programme, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster management, Sadiya Farouq has refuted it as false.

Speaking at a briefing of the Presidential Taskforce today, she said the school feeding program had begun since 2016 but was interrupted by the pandemic. Hence the reason why the program could not be stopped.

"The school feeding program was interrupted by COVID 19. Food vendors had already been contracted for the project. So it was impossible to ask for a refund. The ministry went into consultation with the NGF and that how we arrived at the modified school feeding program," she said

Explaining the essence of the program, she said it was implemented by the states and directed to households and caregivers of the children. She also added that the amount widely circulated was false.

"The program is directed to households and caregivers of the children. We are not spending 679m per day. The number is inaccurate. The take-home rations are worth 4,200 per household for over 3 million households in the federation," she shed more light.

Farouq said details about the children homes were gotten from the schoolchildren's register and SUBEC which enabled the Ministry to track them to their respective homes. She also added that for transparency, the list of the food vendors was submitted to the EFCC for accountability reasons.

"We are submitting a full list of vendors to the EFCC for transparency. The vendors have been in the program since 2016 and we have been doing this for a while. We have asked Nigerians to support this idea that will keep children fed during the pandemic," she concluded.

The Federal Government Home-Grown School feeding Programme kicked off on Thursday, May 14, 2020, in Abuja.