THE Federal Government says at least 196, 873 pupils have been enrolled in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in Nasarawa State.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq stated this yesterdag when she paid a courtesy visit to Governor Abdullahi Sule in Lafia, the state capital.
Farouq, who was represented on the trip by her Technical Adviser, Abdullahi Usman, said the Federal Government is determined to enroll more pupils in the programme nationwide.
She said: “We are here on a verification exercise. We have been feeding pupils since 2016 but the data we have been dealing with is actually names of pupils sent by all the states.
“So this exercise will allow us to go into the school, put faces and identities to these children by taking their details, their pictures, and biometrics.
“The idea of the exercise is to prove that those we are feeding are actually human beings.”
“Over nine million pupils benefit from one free nutritious meal a day during school term nationwide, and now we have the mandate to reach an additional five million pupils by 2023.
“Talking specifically about Nasarawa, as we speak today, we have 196,873 pupils that are being fed in a total of 1,203 schools.”
