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The Federal Government has disclosed that over N500 million was spent to feed school children during the lockdown period occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
This was disclosed by Sadiya Umar-Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday.
Umar-Farouq explained that a total of N523,273,800 was spent on 124,589 households, at the rate of N4200 per family.
She said the breakdown was necessary to clear the air over speculations regarding how the federal government disbursed funds for the programme.
“It is critical at this juncture to provide details that will help puncture the tissue of lies being peddled in the public space,” she said.
“The provision of take-home rations, under the modified home grown school feeding programme, was not a sole initiative of the MHADMSD.
“The ministry, in obeying the presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the state governors’ forum, following which it was resolved that take-home rations remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lockdown.
“So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out take-home rations. The stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states as pilot cases.”
The minister also revealed that the implementation of the programme was done in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari on the 29th of March.
She said each family was assumed to have three children, adding that the school feeding programme was modified, and 124,589 households were impacted, at the rate of N4,200 per family.
“According to statistics from the NBS and CBN, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to six members in its household, with three to four dependents. So, each household is assumed to have three children,” she said.
“Based on the original design of the home grown school feeding programme, long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day. The meal costs N70 per child.
“When you take 20 school days per month, it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month. Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month and that was how we arrived at the cost of the ‘take-home ration’.
“The agreement was that the federal government will provide the funding while the states will implement. To ensure transparency in the process, we partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) as technical partners.”
Umar-Farouq further disclosed that relevant government agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), non-governmental organisations, among others, were carried along all throughout the implementation of the programme and duly monitored the process.
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