Pupils' Biometric Data Capture Will Boost NHGSFP Enrollment In Nigeria- Farouq


By Blessing Bature- Akpakpan, Abuja

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouq has said that pupils' biometric data capture would assist the federal government to enhance school feeding programme and increase enrolment figure in the country.

Farouq stated this at Gurungawa primary school, Kano, on Tuesday, while flagging-off the School Feeding Enumeration exercise.
Umar-Farouq who was represented by her Technical Assistant, who was also the Team Leader of the exercise in Kano State, Mr Hashim Abubakar said that the ministry involved NYSC corps members, NOA and the staff of the National Bureau for Statistics in the exercise with a view to having an authentic data to work on.

The minister, therefore, urged Local Education Authorities, teachers, parents and other stakeholders to ensure that every eligible pupil was captured during the exercise.
She explained that it was President Muhammadu Buhari who created the ministry with a view to enhance the living condition of Nigerians.
According to her, the government initiated what was called National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP), that has four components to achieve the set goal.
She said the four components were the N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
Umar-Faruq said that pupils from primary school one-to-three would be captured in all the public schools in the 36 states and FCT.
She also said that cooks would also be captured during the exercise.
The minister also reiterated the administration's commitment to lifting Nigerians out of hardships through its social investment mechanisms to enable them contribute in nation building.
In his remarks, the State Programme Manager, Alhaji Abdullahi Yau, commended the minister for initiating the exercise with a view to have accurate data of the beneficiaries.
He said that 1.2 million children in the state were benefitting from the programme currently.
Yau however said that with the launch of free and compulsory education, pupils enrollment has significant increased.
Also, the programme focal person, Malam Baba Aminu-Zubairu, said that the state has over 2 million children that need to be captured now.
He urged teachers and parents to ensure that ever eligible child was captured during the exercise.