Goodnews! 5.5 million children to benefit from free meal programme

– The minister of information and culture, has said that the federal government will fund the A-Meal-A-Day programme

– About 5.5 million children are set to benefit from the programme

– The Homegrown school feeding program was launched in Abuja on June 9

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has said that the federal government and not the states, will fund the A-Meal-A-Day programme.

The programme which was launched last week when fully operational, is set to benefit 5.5 million school children.

The minister revealed this on Sunday, June 12, in Lagos at the 8th Alhaji Kafaru Tinubu Memorial Ramadan Lecture, with the theme: “Supreme sacrifice and the essence of followership in governance.”

According to him, the federal government was working carefully towards making life more meaningful for Nigerians through carefully designed projects, noting that a N500 billion Social Intervention Pro­gramme had been put in place to help alleviate poverty.

READ ALSO: National school meal project scheme under threat

He said: “This government is making a lot of sacrifices and it is also expecting a lot of sacrifices from the people. The N500 bil­lion Social Intervention Programme which is broken into five parts covers employ­ment of 500, 000 unemployed graduates who will be trained as teachers. It also cov­ers the employment of 100, 000 artisans as well as the One-Meal-A-Day programme for pupils in primary schools.

“The Enterprise Scheme which is target­ed at one million market men and women, 460, 000 artisans, 200, 000 agriculture workers is also covered in the programme. It also covers the N5,000 monthly condi­tional cash transfer to the poor and vulner­able’’.

Meanwhile, the start to the Homegrown school feeding program was launched in Abuja has not really been smooth so far. An investigation by Saturday PUNCH reveals why the program may suffer a setback: the state governments say they cannot share financial responsibility with the federal government.

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