In Lagos, a stakeholders meeting to fine tune the enumeration and enrolment of beneficiaries for the
resumption of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, have been held in Alausa Ikeja.
The School Feeding Programme is one of the social intervention programmes of the Federal Government, whereby pupils in Primary one to Primary three are given one nutritious meal a day during school hours.
The stakeholders who discussed the challenges from the first round of the feeding programme which
was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic to include inadequate allocation for feeding per child, irregular
payment of vendors, and other emerging issues such as the withdrawal of some of the vendors from the
programme also made suggestions on how to overcome them.
In a remark, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia
Sadiya Umar Farouk who was represented by the team leader, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu promised
that all identified challenges would be escalated to Abuja and fully addressed.
"This is an improvement, an added layer of transparency to the programme, without meeting with those
at the grassroots, we won't know some of the problems already identified, do, definitely, I will take all of
these to the Ministry and they would be duly addressed" the Minister said.
On her part, the Focal person and Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs Yetunde
Arobieke who described the School home feeding programme which is being handled by the State
Universal Basic Education Board, as very key to the wellbeing of children, called for an upward review of
fund allocated for it to meet current realities, especially in view of the rising prices of food.
Mrs Arobieke stated that to ensure that no primary school pupil is left out, Lagos would be scaling up
the programme to primary six
She said "Very soon, we are going to take over primary four to six, because when primary one to three
are being fed, those in the upper classes are always looking at them,
The Commissioner added that the State would be monitoring the enumeration and implemention to
ensure that the vendors engaged for the feeding programme adhere to the terms of their contract.
The Project Manager in Lagos, Mrs Yinka Makinwa who said the programme has made positive impact in
the lives of beneficiaries said records show that pupils in about one hundred and nine schools across
Lagos are yet to benefit from the programme.
While the representative of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr Ọlálékan Hakeem called for
an increase in the fund allocated for feeding each child, he also highlighted the need for those in Abuja
to request for updated data before releasing fund to vendors.
The representative of the National Orientation Agency and that of the National Bureau of Statistics who
were part of the meeting reiterated their commitment to providing accurate data for the success of the
programme.
The Consultant in the State, Mr Odion George appealed to pupils and stakeholders in the schools to
make themselves available particularly, when the enumeration forms are being distributed to ensure
that everyone is captured.
A second meeting to review the enumeration and enrolment of beneficiaries has been scheduled to hold
on the 9th of July.
