TAIWO OJOYE
29 AUG 2018

John Charles, Makurdi

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investment Programme, Mrs Maryam Uwais, on Tuesday, alleged that funds for the Federal Government Home Grown School Feeding Programme were being diverted in Benue State.

According to her, the number of beneficiaries of the school feeding programme in Benue State is inflated.

Uwais spoke with journalists shortly after meeting with Governor Samuel Ortom, whom she paid a courtesy visit to at the Government House in Makurdi.

She lamented that the Federal Government Social Investment Programmes, particular the home-grown school feeding programme, were almost becoming unsuccessful in Benue State.

She noted that Benue was one of the prime states for the Federal Government Social Investment Programme.

Uwais said Ortom’s decision to reposition the Benue State office of the programme was a step in the right direction.

“We also have over 900,000 cooks in Benue, but we are trying to reorganise it because we have found a lot of anomalies, in terms of the number of pupils and the number of cooks,” she said.,

https://punchng.com/fgs-school-feeding-programme-funds-diverted-in-benue-uwais/amp/


HOME GROWN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAM[HGSFP]

Definition
School feeding programs have been defined by the World Bank as "targeted social safety nets that provide both educational and health benefits to the most vulnerable children, thereby increasing enrollment rates, reducing absenteeism, and improving food security at the household level". Wikipedia

Objectives
The main objective was to determine the effectiveness of school feeding programs in improving physical and psychosocial health for disadvantaged school pupils .

History
The Federal Government piloted the implementation of Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF in 2004, through the FME with 12states and FCT as initial beneficiaries. However, the program stopped in 10 states and FCT shortly after leaving only Osun and Kano to continue.
Attempts to re-introduced it under the GEJ government
failed. In 2016, however, tqhe Federal Government. reaffirmed its commitment to the HGSFP by setting a target of 12.8 million primary school aged children to benefit from the programme by July 2019.
As at August 2017, NHGSFP is in about 20.000 schools in 14 states across Nigeria.--
https://www.npowerdg.com/2018/01/the-history-of-national-home-grown.html?m=1

President Muhammadu Buhari during his 2014 electioneering promised free daily meals for public primary school pupils across the country

Milestone
During the launch the VP said the programme aims to support States to collectively feed over 24 million. At the launch of the 2017 global nutrition report, the VP said the programme was active in 17 states with about 5m pupils being fed one meal/day but hoping for 5.5m pupils by years end.
As at May, 2018, the VP said, about 7.6 million children in 22 states across the country were being fed daily under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

As at May 2018
The federal government disclosed it now feeds 8,260,984 pupils in 45,394 public primary schools in 24 states under its National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, The 24 syates include: Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau and Bauchi States.
Others are Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Ondo and Borno
https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/05/24/fg-now-feeds-over-8-2m-pupils-in-24-states-2/amp/
Lagos state is considering joining the program and Delta state is adjudged the best in service delivery.

Below is the link containing reports from various states
http://thenationonlineng.net/gains-school-feeding/