The National Home-Grown School Feeding (NHGSF) programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is presently in 19 states.
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Laolu Akande listed them as Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa and Niger states.
He said over five million pupils in 28,249 schools are being fed in the 19 states, with Kano and Katsina joining soon.
Akande added that over 50,000 cooks are engaged in the programme.
The school feeding, which is part of the N500 billion National Social Investment Programme, (NSIP), he said, targets 5.5 million pupils this year.
In a statement, the senior special assistant said the programme is partnering the Federal Ministry of Health in an integrated deworming for primary school pupils from classes one to six in 17 states.
“At least 243 local government areas will benefit from the deworming in the 17 states, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Niger, Osun, Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Anambra, Benue, Imo, Kano, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Delta and Plateau states.
“The integrated programme, which is scheduled for the first and second week of December, will deliver three different drugs for the treatment of diseases endemic to specific states; particularly schistosomiasis; soil-transmitted helminths and river blindness/onchocerciasis. The drugs to be distributed are Albendazole, Ivermectin and Parazaquintel.
“Supported by the Federal Government, three facilitators would be within the states to achieve these objectives and ensure that pupils are dewormed,” he said