The Nigerian government says on Sunday that it has so far released N3. 77 billion for the feeding of 1, 287, 270 school children in nine states under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme of the current administration.

The benefiting states comprising Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta and Abia at the last count have received various sums in tranches while 14, 574 cooks have been engaged in the communities were the schools are located.

Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President, in a statement on Sunday said the money was paid directly from the Nigerian 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.

In the statement, Anambra state got a total of N693,013,300, in eight tranches of N53,684,400, N67,462,500, N68,570,600, N70,387,100, 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 N419,427,200 in six tranches of N67,244,800, N67,244,800, N69,570,900, N69,570,900, N69,570,700 and N76,225,100 respectively while 108,898 school children have so far been fed.

For Oyo state, a total of N414, 708, 700 have been released for the feeding of 107,983 in six tranches of N72, 288,300, N66, 622, 500, N66,736,600, N66,736,600, 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, N62,089,580, N62,089,580, N49,217,310, N212,013,200 and N212,013,200 respectively for the feeding of 151,438 pupils.

In the same vein, Ogun state has been paid a total of N880,055,400 in seven tranches comprising N119,648,900, N119,648,900, N119,648,900, N119,648,900, N 119,648,900, N119,648,900 and N162,162,000 respectively while a total of 231,660 school children have been fed.

Ebonyi State received N 344,633,100 in three tranches of N115,218,600; N115,218,600 and N114,195,900 respectively for the feeding of 163,137 school children

Zamfara, Delta and Abia States got a total of N188,001,100; N63,366,100, N42,921,200, and for the feeding of 268,573, 90,523 and 61,316 pupils respectively. The last three states are the latest to join the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme which is projected to feed over Three million pupils this year.

“The total number of cooks that have been hired in Anambra, Enugu and Oyo states are 1009, 1, 276, and 1, 372 respectively while 2, 863, 2, 205 and 1, 453 cooks were hired in Osun, Ogun and Ebonyi states.

“In Zamfara state 2,738 cooks were engaged under the programme while 908 and 750 were hired in Delta and Abia states respectively,” the statement said. (PM News)

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