24m children to benefit from school FG’s feeding programme

The federal government has disclosed that 24 million children would benefit from the national home grown school feeding programme.

The programme will also create 1.14 million jobs; 290,000 jobs from community caterers, 580,000, jobs from support caterers; and 274,000 for small holder farmers.

In its first year, 5.5 million children across 18 states, including Kaduna and Osun, where school children are currently given free meals, will benefit from the programme.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo revealed this at the inauguration of the programme’s coordinating team, adding that the main objective of the programme include ensuring school enrolment and completion, child nutrition and health, local agricultural production, creating jobs and improving family and state economy.

He said the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is committed to ensuring all the benefits of the programme are real in the lives of the people.

The school feeding programme is part of government’s intervention programme, which N500 billion was budgeted for in the 2016 spending plan.