The Federal Government on Tuesday said it had concluded plans with state governments to start feeding school children in their various homes.
According to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the federal and state governments had agreed to continue the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme using a door-to-door voucher distribution system.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said the programme would give priority to Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory.
In a statement issued by her ministry’s Assistant Director of Information, Rhoda Iliya, the minister stated that the programme would extend to all states currently participating in the scheme for 30 days.
She was quoted as saying,
“Vouchers will allocate collection time to avoid overcrowding. The vouchers will be redeemed at designated distribution sites.
“Existing aggregators will provide the food items. Distribution sites will be situated within the communities and in some states within the schools by hand washing points. Safety and hygiene precautions will be observed.”
Farouq further stated that the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme supervised by her ministry had so far distributed N20,000 each to 110,202 existing beneficiaries on the National Social Register in seven states.
This means the ministry had disbursed a total of over N2.2bn, as Farouq said payments would commence in 17 additional states on Monday.
She said,
“It is important to highlight that since the creation of the ministry, we have piloted digital payment in six states and part of the overhaul of the CCT programme is transitioning to digital payments across all participating states.
“This is a priority and we are actively working to transition the mode of payment all across the states.”
The minister said the National Emergency Management Agency was ready to deploy 45,000 metric tonnes of food items to households of satellite towns in front line states including Lagos, FCT and Ogun, with particular emphasis on vulnerable households.
She said the North East Development Commission had provided 11,000 Personal Protective Equipment, 12 ventilators and 6,000 surgical masks to six states in the North-East geopolitical zone.
Other things provided by the commission for the region include 3,000 ordinary masks, 192 infra-red thermometers, 2,400 hand gloves and 2,500 hand sanitizer.
