Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Mamedu, has disclosed that despite efforts by various stakeholders to tackle the ‘out-of-school-children’ pandemic, at least 15 million children are still out of school in Nigeria.

Mamedu said the out-of-school figure and other statistics show that the crisis in the education sector is not due to lack of effort, but “weak governance, underfunding, and systemic gaps.”

The ActionAid Country Director made this known at the National Policy Forum on the Institutionalization and Implementation of Home-Grown School Feeding Programme for Sustainable Economic Growth and Financial Inclusion at the State House Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, held on Friday.

He said the gathering was not just another event, but a defining moment in the journey to secure the future of millions of Nigerian children, “strengthen our communities, and advance inclusive national development. It also aligns with ActionAid Nigeria’s 10-year Country Strategy Paper, which commits to lifting at least 5 million people out of poverty by 2034.”

Mamedu explained that institutionalizing school feeding is a critical pathway to achieving the ActionAid’s 10 years strategy across Nigeria, adding that “too many children still go to school hungry.”

“According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index, Nigeria scores just 0.36—meaning a child born here today will achieve only 36% of their productive potential if nothing changes.

“Between 2018 and 2022, enrolment in basic education increased from 35 million to 40 million. Yet the number of out-of-school children grew from 9.1 million in 2000 to 14.6 million in 2020. Today, of the 60 million Nigerian children aged 5–14, more than 45 million cannot read a simple text at age 10, with 15 million completely out of school,” he said.

He noted that the figures showed that the crisis was not due to lack of effort, but weak governance, underfunding, and systemic gaps.

“This is the reason ActionAid Nigeria has always believed in and supported the Federal Government’s vision for the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme as a proven pathway to address these gaps,” Mamedu stated.

He said ActionAid partnership with the federal and state governments had translated into action and through a MacArthur Foundation–funded project, “we worked with partners to strengthen accountability and transparency in 400 schools in Kaduna State. We empowered communities to monitor school feeding, built the capacity of stakeholders at state and local levels, and supported advocacy that led to major reforms.”

According to him, the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is more than a nutrition intervention.

“It is an education strategy that keeps children in school and helps them learn better. An economic strategy that stimulates local farming and food markets. A social protection strategy that reduces hunger and inequality. A human capital development strategy with guaranteed returns on investment. And ultimately, a nation-building strategy for inclusion, stability, and sustainable development,” he added. (Daily Trust)