During the 2015 presidential election campaigns, the All Progressives Congress promised to feed all children in primary schools. They are fulfilling their promise by spending 7 billion on feeding pupils

   Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo says a significant part of 41 Billion Naira has been spent on the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

According to the breakdown, at least 1,051,619 primary school pupils were fed across the 7 states of Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Zamfara state engaging about 11,847 cooks.

Altogether, 8,587 schools are involved in the benefiting states.

These figures were contained in a statement by a spokesman for the Acting President, Laolu Akande, released after the update was presented to Professor Osinbajo.

He says more meals would be served as Delta and Abia States are expected to join the programme later in the week.

Delta state is expected to receive more than 63.3 million Naira to start the feeding of 90,523 pupils, while Abia will receive 42.9 million Naira.

A statement issued shows “Kaduna State has now been repaid 3.4 billion Naira for its past expenses in implementing the food programme ahead of FG’s roll-out”.

A breakdown of 41 billion so far spent on the SIPs shows that N-Power, which is the job programme for unemployed graduates, received 26.418 billion Naira.

Mr Akande explained that the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSFP) received 7.092 billion Naira, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) 800 million Naira and Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP) 7.301 billion Naira.

“For instance, under the N-Power job scheme for unemployed graduates now running in 36 States and FCT, 162,024 unemployed graduates have been effectively enrolled and validated.

 “This means that the enrollees have been cleared to be receiving the N30,000 monthly stipends, out of the 200,000 originally engaged late last year,” the statement further read.

After the Acting President received the update, he ordered that the Social Intervention Programmes (SIPs) be expanded to enable more Nigerians benefit.