The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced plans to scale up the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme to cover 50 million primary school pupils across the country by 2026.
Aderemi Adebowale, National Programme Manager of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, disclosed this in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to her, the expansion will extend beyond pupils in primary one to six, as government also intends to gradually integrate out-of-school children into the scheme.
“So, by the year 2026, we are looking at feeding close to 50 million pupils in primary school in Nigeria,” Adebowale stated.
She explained that the cost of a meal per child should range between N500 and N1,000, stressing that nutritious and tasty meals can still be provided daily within that budget.
To ensure affordability, Adebowale said the agency had created an alignment system that brings together smallholder farmers, aggregators, vendors, and supply partners.
This, she noted, would allow government to negotiate directly with suppliers and avoid market price fluctuations.
“With this alignment, we’ll be able to control price from the rock bottom. We are not going to be doing market prices. We have to agree on prices from our suppliers, agri-vendors and farmers to arrive at a reasonable cost per plate. Once we do that, we will follow up on the payment and service delivery,” she added.
