Niger to spend N1.2b every 20 days on school feeding

The Niger State government says it would spend N1.2 billion in every 20 days of the  primary school feeding programme expected to kick off Sept. 25,

Special Adviser to Governor Abubakar Bello on Empowerment and Social Protection, Mrs. Afiniki Dauda, disclosed this, on Tuesday, in Minna, during the training of 150 food vendors and desk officers on food safety and hygiene.

The  training, tagged: “train the trainees”, was organised for selected vendors across the 25 local government areas, to prepare them for the feeding programme.

Dauda said that the Federal Government would spend N70 per day, for every child involved in the feeding programme.

“We have submitted a list of well over 800,000 pupils from 3,000 schools for the programme; its principal aim is to
raise nutritional value among pupils and increase school enrollment,” she said.

She said that 70,170 vendors had been captured for the programme, adding that their data had been submitted to the National Identity Management office for verification.

The official said that government had set up a special monitoring and evaluation team consisting of desk officers, counselors, parents and teachers association to ensure its success.

Dauda warned vendors and other officials against diverting food items meant for the pupils, saying that anyone caught would be prosecuted. (NAN)