FG Launches NHGSFP To Address Malnutrition In Primary Schools

By Blessing Bature, Abuja

The Federal Government through its ministry, Federal Ministry Of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has yesterday flagged off the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme ( NHGSFP) in Karu Model Primary school, Abuja in an efforts to address malnutrition of school age children and secure a better future for them especially the disadvantage children.

Speaking at the occasion yesterday the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq said that the NHGSFP is a government led 70 naira per day school feeding programme designed by the President Muhammadu Buhari's led administration to improve the health and educational outcome of public pupils using farm produce grown by smallholder farmers to provide mid-day meal to children on every school day.

Farouq said HGSFP seeks to provide one free nutritional meal for children in primary 1-3 in all public primary Schools in Nigeria using food produced within state, adding that the initiative attempts to achieve the dual objectives of increasing Nation food production and ensuring children go to school.

According to her, the programme provide viable opportunity that links the smallholder farmers to the educational sector by facilitating their access to the feeding market, adding that the programme is targeting about 120,300 pupils that will be drawn from 626 public primary schools across the 6 area councils of the Federal Capital Territory.

She however said that as part of the value chain the programme has also empowers the cooks and provide a sustainable income to smallholder farmers thereby stimulating growth and productivity around the communities in the states, and promised to carry all the stakeholders including the cooks along at the course of the full implementation of the programme in FCT to ensure efficient service delivery.

Responding the Honourable Ministers of state FCT, Dr. Raumatu Tijani Aliyu commended the initiative as laudable aimed at touching the grassroots pupils and to encourage pupils's participation in school attendance which has been seen in the states that practiced it , it has enhance school attendance to about 90 percent, it has also created jobs for parents that insist on children hawking as they now have a place where they can market thereby reducing child labour.

She however pleaded with the Federal Government to augment a bid above the 70 naira per day for the FCT pupils saying that the prices of things in FCT is comparatively higher that of other states so government should consider and improve upon.

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