The federal government says so far, it
has released over N375 million in five
states for the implementation of its
school feeding program. Laolu Akande,
senior special assistant on media and
publicity to the vice-president, made this
known in a statement issued in Abuja on
Sunday.
Akande said the release of the amount
was meant to feed almost 700,000
primary school pupils in the five
states. According to him, all states of the
federation, except two, are now being
processed for the payment of N30, 000
monthly stipends to 200,000 graduates,
who are the N-Power beneficiaries.
Giving an update on the federal
government’s Social Investment
Programs (SIP), Akande noted that the
programs were proceeding at different
stages of implementation. He revealed
that last week, the government released
money for the “smooth” implementation
of the feeding program in Anambra,
Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ebonyi.
“The sum of about N375, 434, 870 has
just been released and paid to 7,909
cooks in those states for the feeding of a
total of 677, 476 primary school pupils,”
he said. Akande said Ogun got a total of
N119,648,900 paid to 1,381 cooks to feed
170, 927 pupils, while Ebonyi got
N115,218,600 paid to 1,466 cooks to feed
164,598 pupils.
He said Anambra got N67.5 million paid
to 937 cooks to feed 96,489 pupils; Oyo
State got N72.2 million paid to 1,437
cooks to feed 103, 269 pupils, and Osun
got N867,370 paid to 2,688 to feed 142,
193 pupils. Akande said that all monies
were paid directly to the cooks and
covered 10 days of school.
He also disclosed that Zamfara and
Enugu states would soon be paid N188.7
million and N67.2 million, respectively,
later in the week. “In Zamfara, the sum
would be paid to 2,738 cooks to feed
269,665 pupils, and in Enugu, the sum
would be paid to 1,128 cooks to feed 96,
064 pupils,” he said.
“By then, over N631 million would have
been released so far in 2017 for school
feeding in seven states, paid to 11,775
cooks and meant to feed over one
million primary school pupils,’’ he
added.
