The federal government said that it had spent N41.7 billion on 25 million meals under the auspices of National Homegrown School Feeding Programme in all the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as part of its social investment programme.

A statement by the acting president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, said no fewer than 1, 051, 619 primary school pupils are currently being fed across seven states of Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Zamfara States while 11,847 cooks have secured employment under the scheme.
He also gave a breakdown of the sum spent on other programmes such as Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), N-Power, among others.

“Specifically, Delta State is expected to receive soon, a sum of N63, 366, 100 to start the feeding of 90, 523 primary school pupils. In the same vein, Abia State is also expected to receive N42, 921, 200. Besides, Kaduna State has now been repaid N3.4 billion for its past expenses implementing the food programme ahead of federal government’s roll-out.

“In a breakdown of the over N41 billion so far spent on SIPs, N-Power, which is the job programme for unemployed graduates has received N26.418 billion, being the single largest spending item out of the four social investment programmes under the 2016 Appropriation.

“Beside, N-Power, actual released funding for the other three programmes, apart from other expenses, so far, are as follows: Home Grown School Feeding (HGSFP) – N7.092 billion; Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) – N800 million; Government Enterprises Entrepreneurship Programme (GEEP) – N7.301 billion,” the statement said.