We’ve Served 25 Million Meals Under School Feeding Programme – FG

The Federal Government says N41bn has so far been spent on its Social Investment Programmes, with 25 million meals served under the school feeding programme.

The FG disclosed this in a statement issued by the spokesman to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Mr. Laolu Akande, on Tuesday.

The statement said a breakdown of the total number of meals served show that 1,051, 619 million primary school pupils are now being fed in 8,587 schools across Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Zamfara states.

It added that no less than 11,847 cooks have been employed to prepare the meals.

Of the over N41bn so far spent on the social investment programmes, the statement said N-Power, which is the job programme for unemployed graduates, has received N26.418bn, being the single largest spending item out of the four social investment programmes under the 2016 Appropriation.

The Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP) received N7.301bn, the Home Grown School Feeding Programme got N7.092bn, while N800m went to the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.

According to the statement, it is expected that later in the week, more meals will be served as Delta and Abia states are set to be paid under the school feeding scheme.

Delta State is expected to receive a sum of N63, 366, 100 to start the feeding of 90, 523 primary school pupils, while Abia State is to receive N42, 921, 200.

The statement added that Kaduna State had been repaid N3.4bn for its past expenses in implementing the food programme ahead of Federal Government’s roll-out.

While Acting President Osinbajo noted the progress made under each of the programmes, he ordered that the expansion of the programmes so that more Nigerians can benefit, the statement said.