The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD), Sadiya Farouq, revealed on Monday that the Federal Government expended about N523.3 million on school feeding programme during the lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.
She announced this at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja. She said that the programme was modified and implemented in three states following a March 29th, Presidential directive.
“The ministry, in obeying the Presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the state Governor’s 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 said.
According to her, each take home ration was valued at N4,200 and that the figure was arrived at with proper consultation. The minister said that the figure generated from statistics provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN). She added that her ministry invited government agencies like the EFCC, CCB, ICPC, DSS and some NGOs to monitor the process.
“In the FCT, 29,609 households were impacted, 37,589 households in Lagos and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, and July 6. If 124,589 households received take-home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800.” She said.
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