In
furtherance of its goal to tackle poverty and hunger, and to create jobs for
Nigerians in line with its inclusive growth plan, the Buhari administration’s
National Home-Grown School Feeding (NHGSF) Programme is now in 19 states across
the federation.
The
Presidency listed the states to include; Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun,
Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa
Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa and Niger states.
According
to a statement by the spokesman of the vice president. Laolu Akande, said so
far, over five million pupils (5,226,039) in 28,249 schools in these states are
currently been fed under the programme, while Kano and Katsina states are
expected to be added to the beneficiaries states in the coming weeks.
Also,he
noted that over 50,000 cooks are currently engaged under the programme.
He
stated that the school feeding programme, which is part of President Muhammadu
Buhari administration’s N500 billion National Social Investment Programmes,
NSIP, has a target to feed 5.5 million schoolchildren by the end of 2017.
Meanwhile,
Akande said the School Feeding Programme is collaborating with the Federal
Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in
all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states currently under the
NHGSFP in the country.
He
said “At least 243 Local Government Areas will benefit from the deworming
exercise in the 17 states, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Niger, Osun,
Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Anambra, Benue, Imo, Kano, Kaduna, Ebonyi,
Delta and Plateau states.
“The
integrated programme, which is scheduled for the first and second week of
December in these states, will deliver three different drugs for the treatment
of diseases endemic to specific states; particularly schistosomiasis;
soil-transmitted helminths and river blindness/onchocerciasis. The drugs to be
distributed are Albendazole, Ivermectin and Parazaquintel.
“Supported
by the Federal Government, three facilitators would be within the states for
the period to achieve these objectives and ensure that the pupils in these
states are dewormed.”
Source: LeadershipNG
