FG: We now feed 1m pupils every day

The federal government says one million primary school pupils are now beneficiaries of its National Homegrown School Feeding Programme.

Laolu Akande, senior special assistant on media and publicity to the vice-president, disclosed this while giving a media update on the social investment programme of the current administration.

He said so far, a total of N844,360,550 had been released for the commencement of the programme in seven states.

Akande listed the states as Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Zamfara.

However, Akande said only five states with the exception of Ebonyi and Zamfara have commenced the programme.

Also, Akande disclosed that 11,775 cooks have been employed to prepare the meals in those states, while local farmers were the ones producing the food.

Anambra, first state to receive the fund in 2016, got N188,769,000 to feed 96,489 pupils, with 937 cooks at their service.

Ebonyi received N115,218,600 and employed 1466 cooks to feed 164,598 pupils while Enugu received N67,244, 800 to feed 96,064 pupils with 1128 cooks.

In Ogun, FG released N119,648,900 to feed 170,927 pupils and engaged 1381 cooks, while Osun received N92,425,400, employed 2688 cooks to feed 142,193 pupils.

For Oyo, a total of N72,288,300 was released by the government to feed 103,269 pupils, and engaged 1,437 cooks, while in Zamfara, the federal government released N188,765,500 to feed 269,665 pupils and engaged 2,738 cooks.