The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) is one of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) initiated by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2016. I

t is presently supervised by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD). Despite challenges, the ministry has encouraged the enrollment of pupils in schools nationwide, with about 10 million primary one to three pupils fed daily in public schools across the country. AJUKA OKAH reports.

In the face of hardship, growing poverty, debilitating economy, occasioned by years of poor policies and mismanagement of the nation’s resources, the greatest challenge of many families has been how to cater for their children, especially feeding.

A visit to the market in any state across the federation has proven that feeding, which is number one in the basic necessities of life, is no longer as affordable as it was decades ago, as a result of inflation and rising cost of living.

Bearing in mind the growing poverty in Nigeria, after his election in 2015, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration initiated the National Social Investment Programmes in 2016 which was then under the Office of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, but was later transferred to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD) in 2019, shortly after the creation of the ministry.

With the appointment of Sadiya Umar Farouq as the pioneer minister, President Buhari gave marching orders for the ministry to oversee the amelioration of the suffering of Nigerians, especially disaster victims, and to lift as many citizens as possible from the shackles of poverty through the numerous agencies under the ministry, with the popular National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) restructured to ensure that the feeding of primary one to three pupils in in public schools across the federation was seamless.

The School Feeding Programme

From inception in 2016, the NHGSFP had the core objectives of increasing school enrolments, participation and completion, improvement of nutritional status of beneficiaries and stimulation of the local economy through the school feeding value chain, with over 127,000 cooks presently engaged in the programme, along with 100 aggregators mopping up protein items.

Also, thousands of other service providers in the school feeding value-chain are effectively participating in the production, processing, preparation and delivery of these free meals to the targeted beneficiaries.

Currently, the total number of children enrolled in the programme stands at 9, 990, 862 million (about 10 million) in over 53,000 schools of which most pupils have so far been verified and captured on the NHGSFP database, in line with the ministry’s on-going efforts at establishing a verifiable database of beneficiaries across all of its programmes and interventions.

The program, at its core, is designed to address poverty in all its forms in collaboration with the Federal Government (through FMHADMSD) and State Governments, where the FMHADMSD is responsible for the release of funds, guidelines, policies, and monitoring, while the State carries out the day-to-day implementation, including procurement of food items, selection of cooks and vendors who prepare, cook and service of the meals to the pupils.

Right from its introduction in 2016, the benefits of the NHGSFP and its impact on the lives and livelihoods of individuals, groups and communities are numerous. While addressing cross cutting issues of hunger, malnutrition and poverty, it has been encouraging school enrolment.

Feeding cost
When the NHGSFP was introduced by the federal government in 2016, school pupils were fed with N70 per child for 20 days in the schools that had enrolled in the programme, with the successes recorded in the implementation encouraging more states to enrol.

However, with cases of inflation recorded with each passing year, it became evident that N70 was no longer feasible in feeding the school children, with vendors crying out to the federal government for increment.

Expectedly, President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved an upward review in the feeding cost from N70 to 100 per child, in order to encourage the cooks and vendors and also prevent a case of malnutrition that would sabotage the successes recorded since the commencement of the programme.

However, the N100 per child feeding is yet to kick off as the children are still being fed at N70 meal per child as of the time of filing this report.

Nevertheless, while addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, NHGSFP team lead, Aishatu Digil, gave a breakdown of the cost of feeding 9, 990, 862 pupils with N100 everyday for 20 days in a month.

She said: “We were feeding school children with N70 per child, per meal. This was since 2016, but the president has approved N100 upward review. The breakdown of the N100 is as follows: N70 is for the cost of all food items (except egg), N14 for the cost of one egg per week to be implemented through the state structures in partnership with Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN). N10 stipends for cooks, N5 and N6 for micronutrient fortification, payable to cooks and one naira for quality assurance, payable to supervisors, which is optional.

“We are planning of having ‘Egg Wednesday’, where each child in the programme will be given one egg every Wednesday. We have stakeholders like the World Food Programme, National Bureau of Statistics, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Ministries of Agriculture, Education and others to deliberate on the modalities of disbursements.

“We are here basically to look at how best we can realise the benefits of the programme based on the new approved cost to improve the standard and quality of the meal and menu for the children.”

Feasibility of feeding a child with N100
One factor militating against the feeding of school children is the cost of the implementation as a result of the rising cost of living.

It is no longer news that prices of food items are increasing on a daily basis, with those surviving on a dollar per day classified among those living in abject poverty.

While N100 is better than the N70 presently being used to feed each pupil, the reality is that it is not enough as N100 can barely buy anything edible in the present economy, let alone being depended on to feed school children.

Speaking with this reporter on the NHGSFG, a school teacher in the FCT, Mrs Funke Adebayo, said that the federal government should be applauded for implementing the programme, though the cost is still very low.

She said: “I came across a publication on social media where Nigerians were criticizing the federal government on the amount of money they felt is too much to spend on feeding school children. To them feeding 10 million children with 10 billion naira is too much. I just laughed at their ignorance knowing that many of them are not even aware that the money is too low for the number of children the federal government feeds on a regular basis.

“If we are to do the maths, N100 is not enough to feed a child. The breakdown of 10 billion naira for 10 million people is just N100 per child. If you visit any roadside buka, a plate of rice is between N400 to N500. If you want to buy snacks, you have to spend more than N200. Egg alone is between N70 to N100. Even now, you can hardly get a corn for N100, let alone noodles.

“What Nigerians should be more concerned about should be to prevail on the federal government to increase the cost of feeding the children to even N200, because of the realities on ground. The nutrition of the children should be paramount. I don’t even know the magic the facilitators are doing or how the cooks manage to feed children with only N70. It is mindboggling. This is where the minister of Humanitarian Affairs deserves accolades.”

Pupils’ confessions, commendations
Despite the challenges in the implementation of the NHGSFG, it has been attracting commendations from many Nigerians, especially school pupils, who are hoping that it will continue even after Buhari’s administration.

Speaking with our reporter, a primary three pupil of the LEA Primary School, Utako, Abuja, Musa Bello, said the school feeding programme has encouraged him to come to school on a daily basis.

He said, “Everyday I come to school, I will eat rice, beans or Indomie. It makes me come to school every day because there must be something to eat. Sometimes we don’t eat in the house before coming to school because I am sure of getting food. Since I started schooling here, there is no day I don’t get food whenever I am in school.

“I am grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari for the programme. I also thank the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq for sustaining the programme and making sure that we get nutritious food everyday we come to school. We like it and want it to continue.”

Similarly, a primary three pupil of LEA Primary School, Jahi, Favour Adeboye, said the programme has encouraged some of her friends to join her in school on a daily basis.

“There are some of my friends who didn’t like coming to school before, but they come to school everyday now. Though some still go home after eating, the number of pupils coming to school has increased. The food is nutritious and tasty; so we like it to continue,” she said.

Focal persons’ take

Speaking in an interview with this reporter, the focal persons of different states said the school feeding programme has led to an increase in the number of school pupils, urging the federal government to sustain the programme even after the Buhari administration.

The programme manager, National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) in Kano state, Mr. Baba Zubair, said that School Feeding has helped a lot in the enrolment of pupils into primary schools, adding that Kano has over 1.2 million pupils it now feeds everyday.

He said: “From inception, enrolment is the most important benefit of this programme. Pupils have increased more than three times. In addition to the state policy of free and compulsory education, this school feeding helps a lot in the enrolment of pupils in primary one to three. The economic benefits are so much that the value chain transcends from the producers to the farmers, local women and every part of the economic pyramid. So, with the school feeding taking place, the farmers produce more food, traders sell more, women also benefit from it.

“Also, the economic benefits are so many that every part of our economy profits from it. This is because whenever there is school feeding, the farmers will produce more. The problem we are facing is that most good programmes like this don’t continue once another government comes in. Something like this should be sustained because the results are there for all to see.

“In Kano, we have the largest number of school pupils that are benefiting from this; currently, we are feeding over 1.2 million children between primary one and three everyday. We have 12,258 vendors or cooks. We have 10 aggregators supplying food items.

Likewise, the State Nutrition Officer (SNO) on NHGSFP in Osun state, Mrs. Adedeji Comfort, told Blueprint Weekend that the number of school pupils has tripled as a result of the programme, but lamented the hike in the prices of food items.

“We have an improvement in the enrolment of pupils in Osun; so this programme is encouraging. Every day, we do monitoring in Osun schools. Our monitoring team visits schools to count pupils, the quality and quantity of meals vendors bring to the school. However, we had the problem of hiking the price of food items. Before now, vendors complained of the high cost of food items. Now, a bag of rice is sold for N40, 000, while a congo of beans is N1, 500. We followed the 2018 ginger meal in the menu table. That is what they are following. They find it difficult to follow the menu table and demand to be given more money,” she said.

On his part, the Enugu state programme manager, NHGSFP, Mr. Ifeanyi Onah, said the programme should be sustained because it has also been taken to the grassroots.

“This is the best grassroots programme ever introduced by the federal government which has touched the lives of Nigerians positively. I encourage the government to sustain it because it is the best programme that is far-reaching in touching the lives of the people, both rich and poor. It, however, has its own challenges. The effect of Covid-19 pandemic led to a hike in the prices of food items.

“That made it difficult for cooks and even aggregators to access food at the normal price they were getting it before. It was also affected by the price of N70, though the federal government recently increased it to N100. We say kudos to the government for considering the pleas of the stakeholders to be able to match the realities in food prices. Apart from some of the challenges, the programme is really touching many lives positively in Enugu state.”

Commendations

As a result of the transparency of the ministry in implementing the programme, stakeholders have commended the federal government upon its achievements, especially the expansion of the NHSGFP.

The stakeholders made the commendation March 3 in Abuja during a two-day training organised by the ministry, in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), on “Optimising school meal menus,” using SMP Plus (Plus School Menus Tool) for states focal persons and managers from the six geopolitical zones.

Speaking at the training, the focal person for Adamawa state and the North-east, Mrs. Mary Yuwadi, said the ministry, through the NSIP, has increased enrolment in the state as the children receive their breakfast daily. She added that those children that had dropped out of school were back to school because they were encouraged by the meals given in the schools.

“The meal is very nutritious; we give them a balanced diet and that has increased their nutrition. So, we want the government to continue with the programme and we also appeal that some of the schools that are not included in the programme should be added,” she said.

In his remarks, the acting head, WFP, Capacity Strengthening and Policy Coherence Unit, Kim Do-Hwan, said feeding children with nutritious meals would enhance their growth and productivity, adding that the training would help to improve NHGSFP nationwide.

“We at the WFP are here to help the government of Nigeria to achieve its objectives for the school feeding programme. One of the ways is improving the nutritious contents of the menus, developing them in a way that is more cost- effective and tailored toward a good context, so that it can also spur local economic development,” he said.