From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has said the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP), is now on 14 states with 33,895 cooks serving close to three million pupils.
The States include Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna, and Zamfara.
The national homegrown school feeding programmes, is one of the four ongoing social investment programmes of the federal government.
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said at the last count, a total of 6,204,912,889 had been paid out to 14 states during the school year ending August 2017.
He added that so far, a total of 2,827,501 school children are currently benefiting from the school feeding programme, which is well on course to achieve government’s projection to feed over three million pupils this year.
Giving a breakdown of the payment to each state and the number of school children being fed under the programme, Akande said, Anambra State received N693,013,300, while 103,742 children have been fed thus far, with 1,009 cooks paid.
Enugu state got N 571,877,400 and 108,898 children fed so far with 1,276 cooks paid.
In Oyo State, N490,296,800 was released by the federal government for the feeding of 107,983 children, with 1,372 cooks engaged.
Osun state received N1,000,394,888 for the feeding of 151,438 children, while 2,863 cooks were engaged in the state.
Similarly, Ogun State received N1,042,217,400 for the feeding of 231,660 schoolchildren, while 2,205 cooks were paid.
For Ebonyi State, N344,633,100 has been released for the feeding of 163,137 pupils so far, with 1,453 cooks paid.
In the same vein, Zamfara State received N402,295,600 for the feeding of 107,347 school children, while 1,127 cooks were engaged.
Delta state received N225,896,300 for the feeding of 141,663 pupils while 1,364 cooks were engaged in the state.
Abia and Benue states received N128,763,600 and N337,157,800, respectively, to feed 61,316 and 240,827 pupils, respectively. In Abia State, 750 cooks were engaged, while 3,344 cooks were paid in Benue state.