The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq has said that over 8.6 million pupils have so far benefitted from the National Home Grown Feeding Programme across the federation.

Farouq disclosed this at the flag-off ceremony of the programme in the Federal Capital Territory.

She was quoted in a statement issued by her ministry on Friday as saying:

“NHGSFP is currently benefitting over 8.6 million pupils in over 56,000 public primary schools in 35 States across Nigeria.

“About 107,670 cooks have been empowered and over 200,000 small farmers linked to the programme by supplying locally sourced ingredients to improve the nutrition and quality of meals for the children.

“In the FCT alone, 73,000 pupils are being fed in 402 schools by 796 women.”

Farouq said the NHGSFP was one of the four Social Investment Programmes of government focused on ensuring one nutritious meal each day to pupils in classes one to three in public primary schools across the country.

She said, “The programme is designed to increase enrolment rates by mopping up the huge numbers of out of school children in Nigeria while tackling school age malnutrition.

“The ministry is committed to ensuring that the strategic objectives of all the social intervention programmes are achieved and one of its mandates is the formulation and implementation of focused social inclusion and protection programmes in Nigeria.”

The Social Investment Programmes were designed to achieve the national objectives of poverty eradication, increase resilience, promote equity and stimulate growth.