The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has commenced the physical verification and capturing of 196,878 of primary school’s pupils in Nasarawa state on the ongoing NHGSFP.
Farouq who was represent by Abdulahi Usman Technical Adviser to the Minister, said the capturing exercise in the two schools in Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), Lafia East Primary School and the Roman Catholic Mission Primary School Eggon, Nasarawa state were successfully captured, adding that the exercise would capture 2,081 Food Vendors across the 13 LGA of the state, and that the aim is to authenticate data of pupils of primary 1to 3.
“We would be carrying out enumeration of pupils on yearly basis to enable us capture more beneficiaries as well as update our database, the yearly verification exercise would help us capture newly admitted pupils and those transfered from other schools, he said.
He urge the parents, Teachers and the other stakeholders to support the efforts of the Federal Government to take children out of the street and to improve enrollment.
The National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 to recognize the social challenges in the country, decided to innovatively take proactive and decisive measures to fighting the effect of poverty and its attending consequences, following the consultations and research, he launched the implementation of the NSIP in four unique clusters that are integrated to provide impact. They are: the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), the N-Power, the National Home Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) and Government Entrepneure Progamme (GEEP).
The Minister added that the NSIP is strategically designed to fully involved all stakeholders especially the State Government,
Nigerians that include the Youths, elderly persons, widows, poorest of the poor, children and micro business persons.
Nine (9) Million’s pupils are currently benefiting from one free nutritious meals a day during the school term nationwide. She noted that the Ministry now has the mandate of reaching an additional 5 million pupils by 2023.
According to her with 100,000 cooks employed and more than 100,000 small holder farmers participating in this value chain, the NHGSFP is a serious potential for the Social- economic development and it needs to be strengthened, scaled up and sustained nationwide.
She commended the State Government for its commitment in implementing the NHGSFP , while expressing delight over the Team as well as the key Stakeholders to do more to ensure more children benefit from the program. They include the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Education, National Orientation Agency, National Population Commission, National Youth service Corps, UBEC and State Education Boards, are working jointly and closely to verify the existing numbers of beneficiaries on the programme and update the records for better effectiveness, transparency and accountability.
Earlier the representative of the Governor of Nasarawa State, Imran Jubril, a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulahi, on Humanitarian matters who also doubled as the Focal Person for the State, lauded the Federal Government for extending it’s gesture to the state and that since the inception of the Programme, enrollment of pupils has increased, pledging the support of the state government for the programme.
Yakubu Habiba, a Food Vendor at RCM primary school Eggon, expressed his gratitude to the Federal Government for engaging and empowering them.