Why We Can’t Stop Feeding Pupils Despite Closure Of Schools – FG

The federal government has explained why it is difficult to halt its school feeding programme despite the closure of schools nationwide.

The government offered the explanation against the backdrop of criticisms trailing its decision to continue feeding pupils at home after the closure of schools due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, explained that the school feeding programme was a cardinal project of the President Muhammadu administration.

Farouq also noted that the federal government had already mobilized food vendors before the unexpected closure of schools, adding that most of them had already purchased food items and could not be asked to refund monies released to them.

The minister, who spoke during the daily briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Friday, also denied reports that the Buhari administration was spending N679 million daily on the school feeding programme.

She said, “For clarity, the programme which is funded by the federal government of Nigeria is implemented by the state governments and facilitated by the Federal Ministry of human Affairs, disaster Management and Social Development.

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“And this programme, as modified, is targeted at heads of the households, guardians and caregivers of these children – primary school pupils one to three,” she said.

Farouq said, “And also, we are not spending N679 million per day as alluded to, that number is inaccurate. The take-home ration is worth N4,200 per household and is planned as a monthly COVID-19 intervention for 3,131,971 households in the participating states of the Federation.

She explained that, “When the federal government ordered the closure of schools across the country in order to help flatten the curve on the COVID-19, it interrupted the school feeding programme, which is one of our Cardinal project has a government and which preceded the COVID-19 outbreak, and because the programme was already ongoing, food vendors had already been contacted and mobilized for the project.

“We are also mindful of the fact that most vendors having mobilised are made purchases Preparatory to the project as official. It’s not just possible to ask them for a refund. This has been done before the school calendar was disrupted,” the minister added.

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