FG To Feed And Deworm Children With N142.3 Billion In 2021

In 2021, under the Home-Grown School Feeding (NHGSFP), the federal government has penned N142.3 billion to feed 9.86 million children, deworm seven million children and recount the pupils.

The proposed allocation for the NHGSFP accounts for 40.5 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure of the nation’s social investment programmes, NSIP, domiciled under the ministry of humanitarian affairs, which was established in 2019.

The proposed N142.3 billion is meant to cater to the feeding of about 10 million, deworming of seven million primary 1-3 pupils in 35 states and FCT and 60,000 out-of-school children, enumeration of pupils and training of cooks and farmers.

The National Assembly joint committees on poverty alleviation detailed this in a document exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES which the committees submitted to the Senate in October.

The ministry of humanitarian affairs also told the National Assembly that in the coming year, it would expand the NHGSFP programme to target additional five million children in conventional and non-conventional schools under the Alternate School Programme.

Also, N2.7 billion is planned to be used for the “purchase of feeding utensils, devices for capturing and aprons for cooks” for the feeding programme.

In all, the NHGSFP could gulp N145 billion in 2021.

The amount billed for the NHGSFP is a slice from the N400 billion – N350 billion recurrent and N50 billion capital expenditure – proposed to the National Assembly for the implementation of the nation’s social investment Programmes (NSIP) in 2021.

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2021 budget
The proposed sum of N4.04 billion has been pencilled by the humanitarian affairs ministry for its expenditure in the coming year.

If passed as it is, it would be an increase of 29 per cent from the N3.125 billion budgeted for the ministry in 2020.

Only N1.2 billion of this year’s allocation had been released as of September, according to the document obtained by this medium.

Of the amount the ministry tabled before the National Assembly, it said N796.5 million would be for recurrent expenses – which includes N296.5 million personnel and 500 million overhead costs– while N3.24 billion is for its capital spendings.

“The personnel cost covers salaries and allowances of staff of the two departments moved from the erstwhile Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to the new ministry.”

Meanwhile, the proposed capital expenditure for the ministry is for 32 capital projects, comprising 29 ongoing projects and 3 new projects, the document showed.

Source