FG shifts target on school feeding, to begin Oct

The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has said that the Home-Grown School Feeding programme will to kick off in several states this month.

The government had initially stated that the programme would take off in September at the resumption of academic activities in select schools across the country.
The vice president made this known while speaking with a group of Radio journalists and producers at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, but gave no reason for the shift in date.

He said, “Definitely before the end of this month, we expect that several states would have come on stream with their Home-grown School Feeding Programmes,” adding, that the Home-Grown School Feeding programme “will energise agriculture in the different states because it is what you plant that you feed the children with”.

According to him, “it will be Federal Government funded from Primaries 1-3 and the state governments hopefully would be able to cater for the other classes.”

According to the Vice President, the Home-Grown School Feeding programme is another section of the Social Investment programmes that impact directly on the lives of Nigerian children and families. He said several states will start implementing the Home-grown School Feeding Programme before the end of October.

Prof. Osinbajo also said implementation plans for the effective commencement of a number of the Social Investment programmes of the Buhari presidency has reached advanced stages as the selection of the first 200,000 unemployed graduates to get jobs is now being completed.

Read also: Unease in presidency as VP Osinbajo comes under intense watch

“we expect that before the end of the month, we will engage 200 ,000,” out of the 500,000 unemployed graduates the Buhari administration plans to hire in the N-Power jobs programme, he stated.

According to him, the direct government jobs is meant “to keep this young people occupied, pay them some amount of money and also give them a device, which will also help them to learn several skills that they can develop as time goes on.”

Prof. Osinbajo added that “we expect that before the end of this month, we should have engaged 200,000 of them and we are hoping that before the end of the year we should have engaged more.”

Equally he stated that the Micro-Credit scheme for which the Buhari administration will give very low-cost loans to more than one million Nigerian artisans, traders, market women and other ranging from N60,000 to N100,000 would also be kicking off this month.

On the economy, Vice President Osinbajo said “I want to assure Nigerians that the government of President Buhari is a very focused and determined government. We are committed to ensuring that we are able to develop the Nigerian economy in such a way that Nigerians are able to find opportunities in their own country, “he said.

The Vice President also emphasized the Buhari administration’s zero tolerance for corruption, as corruption is “the major drain on the country’s resources” adding that “no one would be spared in the fight against corruption because, even the close friends of the President know that they will not be spared, he will not cover for them. Fighting corruption is a priority,” he stressed.

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