Far-reaching effects of school meals project

The announcement of the school feeding programme by President Muhammadu Buhari last year has brought relief and also apprehension to Nigerians about its implementation and sustenance. Their anxiety is fuelled by the prevailing economic recession and the decline in the government revenue generation and failure of the past administrations. Though not an entirely new project, […]

The announcement of the school feeding programme by President Muhammadu Buhari last year has brought relief and also apprehension to Nigerians about its implementation and sustenance. Their anxiety is fuelled by the prevailing economic recession and the decline in the government revenue generation and failure of the past administrations.
Though not an entirely new project, the school feeding programme was adopted by previous administrations, but it could not be sustained.
The project requires feeding pupils in primary schools with one balanced-diet meal in a right proportion to boost mental alertness and physical fitness. The programme when fully implemented would enhance pupil enrolment in schools, reduce absenteeism and improve food security at the household level.
Again, providing in-school meals could reduce short-term hunger, increase the enrollment of girls and children’s ability to concentrate, learn and perform specific tasks.
The project will require huge funds to  implement but some stakeholders opined that it is an economy booster that should not just be implemented but also sustained. It could create employment opportunities.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who announced the feeding project on behalf of Buhari at an event in Abuja, said the multiplier effects of the introduction of the school feeding scheme would help to create 1.14 million new jobs, increase food production by up to 530,000 metric tons per annum, as well as attract fresh investments up to N980bn.
The minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, assessing the 2016 Appropriation Bill recently, stated that the school feeding programme has multiple effects on the economy.
Udoma said government is going to implement the project in phases and it’s going to work with state governments and donor agencies to see that the programme is successful.
The programme’s effects, according to him, will cut across agricultural, transport and other sectors of the economy.
“This time it will be different; we are working on implementing the project, this budget has to be made to work because Nigerians are waiting for us and we intend to deliver,” he said.
Kaduna State recently started giving meals to primary school pupils through screened food vendors across her 23 local government areas.
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru el-Rufa’I, on  January 11, flagged off the School Feeding Programme at Aliyu Makama LEA Primary School in Barnawa, to commence the feeding of 1.5 million children in over 4,000 public schools.
The governor said the initiative is to expand access to education and ensure that every child can have nine years of free, decent basic education no matter the income level of their parents.
According to him, the programme is directly creating 17,000 jobs for caterers, who in turn will employ others to support them, saying “It is an unprecedented undertaking in the state, but one that we solemnly pledged to do during campaign.”
 “In seeking to take care of our children we are creating jobs, boosting demand, exposing people to new skills and hygiene standard, and providing extra income,” el-Rufa’i added.
Meanwhile, barely two weeks into the implementation of the programme in the state, the Education Secretary of one LGA in the state (names withheld) was suspended for circumventing the process of payment of vendors engaged in feeding pupils.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr Shehu Adamu said, “Based on our arrangement, the monies for the vendors would be deposited weekly in banks where each of the vendors’ cooperative societies opened account.
“The heads of the cooperative societies will thereafter access the money and distribute same to each vendor accordingly, based on the number of pupils expected to feed in a week, at N50 per plate.
“But it was alleged that the Education Secretary in question gathered all the heads of the cooperative societies within the local government in his office. He collected the monies from them and was personally sharing it to the vendors, extending up to the middle of Monday night, thereby affecting the implementation of the programme in his local government area.”
Although the programme had taken off successfully, report has it that contractors are complaining that the pupils were increasing daily in most of the schools, thus complicating the feeding process.
In sustaining the project, stakeholders are of the opinion that state governments have to work towards guiding against corrupt practices that will mar the process.
A director from the Federal Ministry of Education who would not want to be mentioned said it is a welcome development that the present administration has found the need to make it an essential part of the Universal Basic Education Programme in all the states of the federation.
“There is no way we can achieve the standard we want in enrollment and access if all the possible ways of intervention are being neglected,” she said.
She however implored the state governments to see that corrupt people do not convert what is meant for the pupils to their personal use and destroy the entire project, saying “we have people who always sabotage government effort by making it an opportunity to make money, so the process should directly deal with people at the grassroots.”
The Executive Director, African Centre for Food, Agriculture and Sustainable Development (Afri-CASD), Mr. Bamidele Adanikin, said the programme aside from empowering the unemployed such as vendors will help boost the agriculture sector.
He described the scheme as a litmus test for the government to prove its sincerity of repositioning the agriculture sector by partnering with local farmers who produce some commodities in excess.
To sustain the project, he said the vendors should be mandated to get all their raw materials from local farmers.
Meanwhile, the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola speaking recently on the implementation of the programme in his state, said that the impact of the school feeding programme was enormous, adding that it was not just for the benefit of the kids but sustains economic growth through entrepreneurship.
Aregbesola disclosed that the programme had increased enrolment in the state by 25 per cent and empowered over 3,000 women who serve as food vendors, adding that they also operate independently to make their products available for sales in the market.