Nigerian govt enrolls 196,000 pupils for school feeding programme in Nasarawa

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, said on Friday at least 196, 873 pupils have been enrolled in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in Nasarawa State.

The minister stated this when she paid a courtesy visit to Governor Abdullahi Sule in Lafia, the state capital.

Farouq, who was represented on the trip by her Technical Adviser, Abdullahi Usman, said the Federal Government is determined to enroll more pupils in the programme nationwide.

She said: “We are here on a verification exercise. We have been feeding pupils since 2016 but the data we have been dealing with is actually names of pupils sent by all the states.

READ ALSO: Nigerian govt says it’ll enrol additional 5m pupils into school feeding programme by 2023

“So this exercise will allow us to go into the school, put faces and identities to these children by taking their details, their pictures, and biometrics.

“The idea of the exercise is to prove that those we are feeding are actually human beings.”

“Over nine million pupils benefit from one free nutritious meal a day during school term nationwide, and now we have the mandate to reach an additional five million pupils by 2023.

“Talking specifically about Nasarawa, as we speak today, we have 196,873 pupils that are being fed in a total of 1,203 schools.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now