School Feeding Pupils biometric data will boost enrolment in Nigeria - Minister

Blessing Bature-Akpakpan, Abuja

The Federal Government, through the Federal ministry of humanitarian affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has said that pupils' biometric data capture would assist to enhance school feeding programme and increase enrolment figure in Nigeria.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Faruq, stated this at Gurungawa primary school, Kano, on Tuesday, while flagging-off the School Feeding Enumeration exercise.

Farouq who was represented by her Technical Assistant, also the Team Leader of the exercise in Kano State, Mr Hashim Abubakar said the ministry involved NYSC corps members, NOA and the staff of the National Bureau for Statistics in the exercise with a view to having an authentic data to work on.

She explained that it was President Muhammadu Buhari who created the ministry with a view to enhance the living condition of Nigerians and initiated what was called National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP), that has four components to achieve the set goal.

According to her, the four components were the N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

She said that pupils from primary school one-to-three would be captured in all the public schools in the 36 states and FCT that cooks would also be captured during the exercise.

The minister, therefore, urged Local Education Authorities, teachers, parents and other stakeholders to ensure that every eligible pupil was captured during the exercise and reiterated the administration's commitment to lifting Nigerians out of hardships through its social investment mechanisms to enable them contribute in nation building.

In his remarks, the State Programme Manager, Alhaji Abdullahi Yau, commended president Muhammadu Buhari and humanitarian minister for initiating the exercise with a view to have accurate data of the beneficiaries.

He said that 1.2 million children in the state were benefitting from the programme currently and however said that with the launch of free and compulsory education, pupils enrollment has significant increased.

Also, the programme focal person, Malam Baba Aminu-Zubairu, said the state has over 2 million children that need to be captured now urging teachers and parents to ensure that every eligible child was captured during the exercise.

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