Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Farouq has responded to speculations and news circulating around funds purportedly spent daily on the provision of take-home rations under the modified Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
Farouq made the clarifications while speaking on Monday at the press briefing of the Presidential Task Force.
“In recent days, there have been rumours and innuendos and speculations around one of our key interventions; the Home Grown School Feeding Programme which was modified and implemented in two states and the FCT following a March 29th Presidential directive… It is critical at this juncture to provide details that will help puncture the tissue of lies being peddled in the public space,” she said.
The minister also explained the rationale behind the modified home grown school feeding programme, the process of engagement and how it was funded.
“The provision of Take Home rations under the modified Home Grown School Feeding Programme was not a SOLE initiative of the federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The ministry in obeying the Presidential directive went into consultations with state governments through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum following which it was resolved that Take Home Rations remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lock down,” she said.
“So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out Take Home Rations and the stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states as pilot cases.
“Each Take Home Ration is valued at N4,200 and that figure was not arrived at without proper consultation. It was not invented. According to statistics from the NBS and CBN, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to 6 members in its household, with 3 to 4 regarded as dependent and so each household is assumed to have 3 children.
“Now based on the original design of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day. The meal costs N70 per child. When you take 20 school days per month it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month. 3 children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month. That was how we arrived at the cost of the Take Home Ration.”
The minister also clarified that she never said every Nigerian has received palliatives.
“What I said is that every state government in Nigeria has received palliatives for onward distribution to the poorest of the poor in their states,” she said.
