The Ogun State government has said over 270,000 pupils in 1,510 schools across the state have been placed on the school free meals project of the Federal Government.
The state government also said 2,948 food vendors were employed to serve the free meals to the pupils during school hours.
The free meals scheme is being implemented in 40 schools across four local government areas of Abeokuta North, Ikenne, Imeko-Afon and Odeda.
The Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Mr. Adeleke Adewolu, addressed reporters in Abeokuta, the state capital, on the implementation of the programme.
Adewolu, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information Communication Technology (ICT), Mr. Bummi Adebayo, said the state remained committed to the implementation to ensure its success.
Also, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects and Programme Manager, Mrs. Tinuola Shopeju said the programme had created 3,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs in the state.
Mrs Shopeju said the programme had been meeting its objectives of enhancing pupils’ nutritional status, empowering women and increasing agricultural productivity.
According to her, the programme has been successful due to effective monitoring and supervision by different agencies and groups, including the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON).
Also, WOCON, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), said it will introduce tracking a device to checkmate and discover any fraudulent practices towards the school feeding programme in Ogun and other states.
The NGO’s Project Coordinator, Mr. Olukunle Adeogun, urged the Federal Government to remove some bottlenecks hindering proper monitoring of the free meal projects for schools.
He identified logistics challenges and bureaucracy in funds disbursement and food distribution as factors hindering the monitoring of the scheme.
The coordinator said parents were withdrawing their wards from private schools and sending them to public schools because of the free meals.
Adeogun assured the residents that pupils enrolled for the programme would be wholly and properly fed with quality meal everyday.
The coordinator said WOCON would monitor it to ensure that the budget for the programme is judiciously utilised.
He said: “No doubt, there are challenges encountered on the monitoring field and there are hiccups and bottlenecks here and there due to logistics and bureaucracy in government in the day-to-day disbursement of both funds and food.
“This monitoring will take place from the tracking stage to the disbursement of funds while we are also to ensure that funds assigned for this project are properly disbursed and used for the purposes for which they are meant.
“Principally, this is to strengthen local accountability practices in the school feeding programme, thereby reducing corruption and ensuring that the children-beneficiaries of the programme are adequately fed with quality food during the programme.
“We want to promise the ministry and the good people of Ogun State that we in WOCON will do all in our power to ensure that the objective and principal goal and the aim of the Federal Government on this programme is fully achieved and children beneficiaries fed.”
