"We will not import food to feed students" - FG

olamide oni

January 4, 2016 11:05 AM

The School Feeding Programm would be entirely homegrown, unlike previous Federal Government plans in the past which relied on importation

Students in classroom

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, in a statement on Sunday, January 3, revealed that the Federal Government would not import food for its school feeding programme.

The School Feeding Programme, which is another aspect of the social intervention programmes, would be entirely homegrown, unlike previous Federal Government plans in the past which relied on importation.

Akande said, “Homegrown school feeding programme will commence in public primary schools in the New Year providing adequate nutrition to schoolchildren, promoting local farming, boost agriculture and create jobs and wealth locally.

“We have experts working in the Presidency, collaborating with experts from global bodies who together will bring to bear international best practices working on how best to implement these programmes.

READ: FG will create 1m jobs in 2016 - Vice President says

“I can tell you that no sooner had President Buhari resumed work than many of these experts have been meeting and planning on how best to implement these plans.

“We are not talking here of something hurriedly put together or a programme where some consultants would take the huge chunk of the resources.”

He also said provision had been made for about one million jobs in 2016, including 500,000 graduate-youths to be engaged as teachers and another 500,000 non-graduate unemployed people, who would be trained as artisans.

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