Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja
The Presidency on Sunday said it has so far spent N3 . 7 bn on the Homegrown School Feeding Programme, which is one of the components of the present administration ’s Social Investment Programme.
It said the sum had been released to nine out of the 36 states of the federation for the feeding of about 1 . 3 million pupils in the states.
The Senior Special Assistant to the acting President on Media and Publicity , Mr. Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.
A total of N500 bn was allocated to the SIP in the 2016 budget while the same amount had been provided for it in the yet- to- be signed 2017 Appropriation Bill.
The feeding programme is projected to feed over three million pupils this year.
Akande named the nine benefitting states as Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi , Zamfara, Delta and Abia.
He said the states had , at the last count, received various sums in tranches while 14 , 574 cooks had been engaged in the communities where the schools were located .
He added that the money was paid directly from the Federal Government ’s coffers to the cooks with a slight variation in Osun State, where some of the food items like eggs were bought centrally by an aggregator.
He said, “ The overall payments to each of the nine states and the breakdown figures of how many children have been fed so far are as follows :
“ Anambra State got a total of N 693, 013 ,300 in eight tranches of N53 , 684 ,400 , N67 ,462 , 500 , N68 ,570 , 600, N 70 ,387 ,100 , N70 , 950 ,600 , N71 , 480 ,500 , N145 , 238 , 800 and N145 , 238 , 800 , respectively while a total of 103 , 742 children have been fed so far.
“ The total release for Enugu State is N 419 ,427 ,200 in six tranches of N67 ,244 , 800, N67 , 244, 800 , N 69 ,570 ,900 , N69 , 570 ,900 , N 69, 570 ,700 and N76 , 225, 100 respectively while 108 ,898 school children have so far been fed .
“ For Oyo State , a total of N 414, 708 ,700 have been released for the feeding of 107 , 983 pupils in six tranches of N72 , 288 ,300 , N66 , 622, 500 , N66 , 736 ,600 , N 66 ,736 ,600 , N66 ,736 , 600 and N 75 ,588 , 100 respectively .
“ In Osun State , N767 , 483, 244 was released in eight tranches of N58 , 299 ,130 , N62 ,089 , 580 , N49 ,671 , 664, N 62 ,089 ,580 , N62 , 089 ,580 , N49 , 217, 310 , N212 , 013, 200 and N212 , 013, 200 respectively for the feeding of 151 , 438 pupils .”
In the case of Ogun State, Akande disclosed that a total of N880 , 055, 400 had been paid in seven tranches.
This, he said, comprised of N119 , 648 ,900 , N119 , 648, 900 , N119 , 648, 900 , N 119, 648 ,900 , N119 ,648 ,900 , N119 ,648 , 900 and N162 , 162, 000 respectively while a total of 231, 660 schoolchildren had been fed .
In Ebonyi State , he said N 344 , 633, 100 had been paid in three tranches of N 115 ,218 ,600 , N115 , 218 ,600 and N114 , 195, 900 respectively for the feeding of 163 , 137 school children
He said Zamfara , Delta and Abia states got a total of N188 , 001, 100 , N63 , 366, 100 , and N42 ,921 , 200 for the feeding of 268 ,573 ; 90 , 523 and 61 , 316 pupils respectively .
Akande said the last three states were the latest to join the programme .
http://punchng.com/school-feeding-in-nine-states-gulped-n3-7bn-presidency/