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Tag: School Feeding

  • Court orders Betta Edu to provide details of N535.8m school feeding spending

    Court orders Betta Edu to provide details of N535.8m school feeding spending

    A Federal High Court, Abuja has ordered Dr Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, to release details of how the sum of N535.8 million was expended on feeding of school children during COVID-19 lockdown.

    Justice Nkeonye Maha, in a judgment, directed the minister and the ministry to furnish a civil society group with parts of the information sought in line with Section 25(1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011.

    Justice Maha held that the minister’s failure to respond to the group’s letter dated Aug. 6, 2020 or even give reason for the refusal to respond to the request as prescribed under the FOI Act contravened the provisions of Section 4(a) and (b) of the act.

    “In view of all the matters before me and flowing from the objectives of the FOI Act 2011, the court hereby orders the 1st and 2nd defendants, in line with Section 25(1) of the FOI Act, to furnish the plaintiff with the information sought in Reliefs 3(a), (b), (c), (d),” she declared.

    The judge also ordered the minister to comply with the orders of the court within 21 days upon receipt of the orders.

    She, however, refused to grant “Reliefs 3(e), (f) and (g) of the plaintiff.”

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Incorporated Trustees of Kingdom Human Rights Foundation International had filed the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1162/2020 following alleged refusal of the then Minister, Hajia Sadiya Umar-Farouq, and her ministry to respond to the information sought.

    Umar-Farouq was the minister under the Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

    The group alleged that independent investigation and information available to it “revealed that the so-called modified and implemented school feeding programme during lockdown against coronavirus pandemic was a scam, cover-up and well-articulated fiction to embezzle public funds.”

    It said that the development was contrary to the statement made by Umar-Farouq during the taskforce briefing on COVID-19 on Aug. 3, 2020.

    Therefore, in the originating summons, the group sued the minister, the ministry and the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

    Also joined in the suit were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Independent Corrupt Practice and other related offences Commission (ICPC) as 4th and 5th defendants.

    The group sought an order of mandamus compelling the 1st defendant (minister) to immediately release and make available to it all the information and documents requested in its application letter to wit:

    “a. Details, accompanied with documentary evidence of how the N523,273,800 million was spent on school feeding programme during the COVID-19 LOCKDOWN in three states following presidential directive as disclosed to Nigerians by the 1st defendant during the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19 briefing of Monday, 3rd August, 2020 in Abuja.

    “b. Details with the aid of documentary evidence disclosing how the said N523,273,800 million was dispatched/distributed to the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at N4,200. 00 to wit:”In the FCT, 29,609 households were impacted; 37,589 households in Lagos and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, and July 6. ‘if 124,589 households received take-home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800.’

    “¢. Facts with the aid of documentary evidence, disclosing whether the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at N4,200 received it in cash or if they received food items.

    “d. If the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at N4,200 received it by cash, facts with the aid of documentary evidence, including state by state photographs of those distributing and those receiving, disclosing whether they were given cash of N4,200 or food items valued N4,200.

    “e. Should the 1st defendant claim that the 124,589 households received N4,200 by bank transfer, facts disclosing that the N4,200 was paid into their various bank accounts, including disclosing the bank account numbers of the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at 4,200 each.

    “f. Phone numbers of the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at N4,200 or the phone numbers of their heads of family.

    “g. State by state addresses of the 124,589 households whom the 1st defendant claimed received take-home rations valued at N4,200 to enable the plaintiff immediately confirm if they received the items.”

    The group said it instituted the suit in the overall public interest and promotion of rule of law, accountability, probity transparency and strengthening constitutional democracy and good governance.

    Responding the minister and the ministry, in their counter affidavit, argued that they did not refuse to provide the information sought as the information had been disclosed in their counter affidavit.

    They also argued that information sought by the plaintiff which bordered on addresses and phone numbers of beneficiaries were personal information and that such disclosure was exempted under Section 14 of FOI Act.

    They corrected that the total sum was N535, 873, 800 for 127, 789 households and not 523, 273, 800 for 124, 589 as alleged by the group.

    They, however, said that they did not disburse cash but food items.

    Delivering the judgment, Justice Maha struck out the names of 3rd, 4th, and 5th defendants’ from the suit, the plaintiff, having failed to disclose a cause of action against them.

    The judge, in the decision delivered on Oct. 30 but the certified true copy (CTC) sighted on Wednesday, said the suit succeeded in part.

    She agreed with the argument of the minister and the ministry that the 127, 789 households had not consented to the disclosure of their personal details as required by law.

    She also refused to grant the request for the release of bank account numbers of the beneficiaries, having stated that no cash was disbursed.

    But Justice Maha held that there was nothing before the court to show how the said food items were disbursed and the defendants had not proved nor shown how the said N535,873,800 was distributed to the beneficiaries.

    “The 1st and 2nd defendants merely stated facts without proof of how the said sum was allegedly spent.

    “All these lapses give room for conjecture and speculation, and the court does not act on speculation; rather on material evidence placed before it,” she said, citing Section 167 of the Evidence Act.

    She, therefore, granted Reliefs (a), (b), (c), and (d) above but declined to grant Reliefs (e), (f) and (g).

  • INVESTIGATION: Nigeria’s school feeding programme derails as out-of-school children increase

    INVESTIGATION: Nigeria’s school feeding programme derails as out-of-school children increase

    Nigeria’s Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) introduced by the Federal Government in 2016, began in seven pilot states – Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Zamfara – but has now spread across 35 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Over nine million pupils in 54,619 public primary schools are said to be benefiting from the programme which caters to only junior classes 1-3. Another 107,550 cooks are said to be engaged for the purpose of implementing the programme and the agriculture sector has been strengthened, as meal ingredients are locally sourced.

    The main objectives of the school feeding programme when it was introduced, were to provide a safety net for the poor, increase enrollment, and eradicate malnutrition in school-age children while also stimulating the national agricultural economy, but it has failed to provide relevant data that shows increased enrolment of pupils in public primary schools over the last six years.

    Controversies around the school feeding programme

    Despite the achievements the programme claims to have recorded since its inception, a lot of controversies, which bother on implementation and accountability, have come from different quarters.

    For example, the school feeding programme is designed to ensure that each child beneficiary gets one solid quality meal a day for a minimum of 20 days in a month, in order to increase enrollment, reduce the dropout rate and improve learning outcomes.

    However, the cost of the meal per child pegged at N70 drew criticism from many Nigerians, and frustration from the cooks engaged to deliver the programme. It was only in February this year that the cost was raised to N100 per child.

    An investigation by TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) has revealed that even with the increase from N70 to N100, the amount budgeted per child is still grossly insufficient to deliver quality meals essential to curbing malnutrition among children in a country where a sachet of portable drinking water is sold for N20, a piece of egg N80, one cup of beans or rice costs an average of N100 and 12.5kg of cooking gas is sold at N10,000 currently.

    Another area of contention is the amount expended on the programme which is shrouded in secrecy, and payment delays which result in inconsistency of food deliveries. In 2020, the House of Representatives queried spending on the programme, insisting that many schools and communities were yet to benefit from the initiative.

    One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.

    The lawmakers also noted that the data used for the programme since its inception had been unverifiable and directed the Statistician-General of the Federation and the National Bureau of Statistics, to provide data on all public schools and pupils benefiting from the initiative.

    They also demanded the details of the food vendors involved in the programme, parameters for the qualifications of the vendors, for the purpose of accountability and in line with the Public Procurement Act.

    While the outcome of this investigation is yet to be made public two years after it was launched, it is clear that at the new rate of N100 per person for the current 9,990,862 benefiting children, the federal government will be spending nearly N1 billion daily and N240 billion annually on the school feeding programme.

    Nigeria not doing enough to address number of out-of-school children

    Besides the HGSFP, the federal government introduced the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme in 2004, as a special intervention vehicle aimed at reducing the rate of school dropouts and out-of-school children.

    The UBE also seeks to improve the quality and efficiency of basic education, as well as promote the acquisition of literacy, numeracy, life skills and values for lifelong education and useful living.

    However, despite the ambitious objectives of the UBE, it receives only a paltry N55.5 billion from the federal government, when compared to the school feeding programme, and over half of this fund remain unutilised.

    Many states have failed to meet the criteria for accessing an annual intervention funding of up to N1.5 billion, and in some cases, there are allegations of misappropriation of these funds, while most public primary schools do not have sufficient classrooms or basic teaching aids, and remain in deplorable conditions.

    Experts say that the right environment must exist for learning to take place. But the objective reality in most state-owned schools does not promote this necessity; a reason UNESCO classified Nigeria among countries where “teaching takes place, but without learning”.

    Some of the criteria for accessing the fund include providing a fifty per cent counterpart funding by the state to match FG’s own contribution, the presentation of an Action Plan detailing proposed projects of how to spend the funds for education for every fiscal year and the attainment of at least 70 per cent budget execution before the release of another fiscal year’s fund.

    Our findings show that as of February 2022, N33.6 billion earmarked for basic education by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) had not been accessed by 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

    The Federal government has rolled out yet another initiative called the Accelerated Basic Education Programme, (ABEP) under the auspices of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC).

    The objective of the ABEP, which will receive funding support from the European Union (EU) and Plan International Nigeria is also to ensure that out-of-school children return to school.

    Despite these interventions, there are currently, 18.5 million children, compared to the 8.7 million in 2014, who are out of school, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the highest in the world.

    TNG’s investigation also reveals that these interrelated intervention programmes initiated by the federal government to reduce the number of out-of-school children have failed to provide comprehensive data that shows the growing net enrollment rate of primary school children in public schools to justify the resources invested in them.

    The net enrolment rate is the ratio of children of the official primary school age who are enrolled in primary school to the total population of the official primary school age which is between 6-11 years.

    A visit to the website of the HGSFP, showed information on the number of schools covered, students fed and cooks engaged, but omitted information on enrollments, which is a main objective of the programme.

    By announcing a higher number of beneficiaries of the programme, without providing vital information on improvement in enrollment and learning outcomes as part of its Key Performance Indicators, the Programme has shown it does not consider the latter a priority.

    It has also failed to show transparency in its operations or render accountability through annual reports on its activities for the past six years and the news section of the website was last updated in October 2017.

    Vice President (South West) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) Salaam Abdusobor, has described the school feeding programme as part of an entrenched system of corruption in the country.

    “Similar projects have been embarked upon in the past with no accountability and with no evidence that it got to the beneficiaries. Where are the 10 million beneficiaries?

    “While there is no doubt that some children may need feeding, which environment are these children schooling in? Is it unsafe, ramshackle and with run down environments?

    “I think the Federal Government has not had its thoughts clearly planned or mapped out and this is a sustained conduit for corruption,” he concluded.

  • Pupils reject promotion to benefit from school feeding programme in Anambra state

    This revelation was made known by the Programme manager of the National Homegrown school feeding scheme in Anambra state, Mrs Eriken Uzoamaka.

    The feeding programme is mainly for pupils from primary one to primary three. Mrs Eriken said the finding was that some pupils reject promotion to primary four because they want to remain in classes where they can be fed.

    Eriken who spoke during a two-day capacity-building workshop on Enhancing Social Protection Programme in Nigeria, a programme organised by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), said the challenge would be resolved once the menu of the higher classes are improved.

    “We serve rich food to pupils in classes 1 to 3 as captured in the national home-grown school feeding scheme. That is why even those that agree to be promoted, usually come to their junior class (primary 3) especially on Wednesdays to struggle for food with others. We serve beans and plantains (or sweet potatoes) that day.

    “We are appealing to the Anambra State government to support the programme by feeding pupils from primary 4 to six, and probably include feeding of preprimary school pupils to curb the challenges and increase more numbers of pupils in public schools,” she added.

    Eriken explained that the programme in Anambra State has been facing some challenges including a hike in prices of commodities, and the death of 10 cooks in the programme, since its inception in 2016.

    “Since the inception of the programme in 2016, about 10 cooks have died and it is affecting the programme in some schools. It is only the nation that can recruit and replace them, we have no right to replace them but we have written to inform the national body but they are yet to be replaced.

    “Another challenge is the high cost of food items in the country, it is affecting the programme and the quality of food given to the children. The cooks are really complaining and the high cost of food items is making it difficult for them to give us adequate meals per child.

  • FG to spend almost N1bn daily on sch feeding, breaks down cost

    The Federal Government on Tuesday said N999 million would be spent daily to feed approximately 10 million pupils in the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) across the country.

    Hajiya Aishatu Digil, the Team Lead of NHGSFP disclosed this at a stakeholder meeting on disbursement modalities for the review cost of feeding in the programme in Abuja.

    She said Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development got the approval of spending N100 per person daily on the feeding in the programme.

    She said that 9, 990, 862 pupils from primary one to three in the programme would now be fed with N100 daily for 20 days in a month, which would amount to N999,086,200 million daily.

    “Prior to this, we were feeding school children with N70 per child, per meal. This was since 2016 but the President has approved N100 upward review.

    “We have all stakeholders like the World Food Programme, National Bureau of Statistics, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Ministries of Agriculture, Education and others to deliberate on the modalities of disbursements.

    “We are here basically to look at how best we can realise the benefits of the programme based on the new approved cost to improve the standard and quality of the meal and menu for the children.

    “The breakdown of the N100 is as follows; N70 is for the cost of all food items except egg, N14 for cost of egg to be implemented through the state structures in partnership with Poultry Association of Nigeria.

    “We are planning of having ‘Egg Wednesday’, where each child in the programme will be giving one egg each every Wednesday.

    “N10 stipends for cooks, N5 and N6 for micronutrient fortification, payable to cooks and one naira for quality assurance, payable to supervisors, which is optional,” she said.

    Digil said the programme would ensure the elimination of poor implementation practices, adding that the ministry was looking out for reforms.

    “After this meeting, we will collate inputs from stakeholders and present to the minister so that we will implement the reviewed feeding cost in the next feeding circle, which starts this month,’’ she said.

    Meanwhile, Dr Umar Bindir, the National Resource Person of the National Social Investment Programme said that the programme was not the responsibility of the Federal Government alone.

    Bindir said to implement the procedure of deploying the N30 that made it N100 in effective feeding of school children, it was absolutely necessary to consult with stakeholders.

    Malam Musa Abubakar, the Programme Manager of NHGSFP in Sokoto State said pupils and their parents were happy with the initial N70 per meal per child.

    “However, with the upward review of N100, all of them will smile as this will also boost the rate of school enrolment.”

    Mr Chika Ebogha, the Chief Programme Officer at NOA said the N100 per meal per child was a good improvement.

    Ebogha called on Digil to step up in the area of compliance on states that have challenges, adding that NOA was willing to assist on monitoring and evaluation of the programme nationwide.

    Mr Kingsley Anikwe from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development suggested that formation of school garden should be encouraged in schools to handle the production of agricultural produce.

    Ms Irowa Irabor, the Project Manager, Enhancing Access to Safer Nutritious Diet Project (GAIN) said the organisation would provide technical and capacity development to the programme.

    Irabor said GAIN would be interested in the `Egg Wednesday Campaign’, adding that the organisation could support in creating visibility in the implementation in states.

    Mr Onallo Akpa, the Director-General, Poultry Association of Nigeria called for effective collaboration with the association to actualise the `Egg Wednesday’ initiative.

    However, some stakeholder suggested that state governments should actively involve others, saying that cooking of meal should be done within the school vicinity and that farmers should also be evaluated.

  • FG increases school feeding from N70 to N100 per child

    FG increases school feeding from N70 to N100 per child

    The Federal Government says it has increased its National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme of N70 per day school feeding of a child in public primary school to N100.

    Dr Umar Bindir, the National Coordinator, National Social Investments Programme (NSIP), said this at a two-day National Consultative meeting on public food procurement in the context of Nigeria’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme on Wednesday in Abuja.

    According to Bindir, the programme is under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

    “When we started in 2016 before COVID-19, we experienced with difficulty to implement the N70 per child.

    “We have made presentation to the honourable minister, who passionately made submission to the president and Mr President has graciously approved that we should raise the feeding from N70 to N100 per a child.

    “And the Minister of Finance is giving a very good cooperation to ensure that this actually is implemented on time, “ he said.

    Bindir used the occasion to advise the team from all the states of the federation to key into the presidential gesture and the cabinet commitment to ensure that the initiative was a sustainable one.

    “We also hope that the state government through the governors and their cabinets will also realised the importance of this programme meant to tackle poverty. “

    According to him, the programme is not just about feeding the children but engaging women to become entrepreneur and good food providers.

    “It is also about enhancing the value, the commercial and entrepreneur value of our small scale farmers.

    “So we hope that this presidential gesture will be understood by not us but also by the states so that we can strengthen the programme, “ he explained.

    He explained further that the consultative meeting was aimed at putting together the implementing team of the NHGSFP in the country to discuss issues that had to do with food and feeding procurement.

    “The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme of Nigeria is recognised now globally as one of the most an ambitious programme of feeding our children in public schools.

    “So the intention of this consultative programme is first to drive home the partnership works and to also establish that Nigeria is doing the right things.

    “As well as to ensure that we enhance our implementation procedures so that we can go higher and become better,’’ he said.

    In his contribution, Dr Emmanuel Agogo, the Country Representative, Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL), said that it was not the cost of the food that made it quality but the content of the food.

    Agogo said that a nutritious food must be balanced, less salt and saturated fat.

    The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) is a government-led school feeding programme that aims to improve the health and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils.

  • N2.6bn Covid-19 funds for school feeding programme diverted to personal accounts – ICPC

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has revealed how the sum of N2.67 billion paid to some federal colleges for school feeding during the COVID-19 lockdown ended up in private bank accounts.

    Bolaji Owasanoye, ICPC chairman, made the disclosure in his keynote address at the second national summit on diminishing corruption.

    The summit themed, ‘Together Against Corruption and Launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy’, was held at the council chambers of the presidential villa, Abuja on Monday.

    The federal government had said it spent over N500 million to feed school children during the lockdown.

    Owasanoye said under open treasury portal review carried out from January to August 15, out of 268 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) 72 of them had cumulative infractions of N90 million.

    According to him, while 33 MDAs gave explanations that N4.1 billion was transferred to sub-TSA, N4.2 billion paid to individuals had no satisfactory explanations.

    “We observed that transfers to sub-TSA was to prevent disbursement from being monitored,” Owasanoye said.

    “Nevertheless, we discovered payments to some federal colleges for school feeding in the sum of N2.67 billion during lockdown when the children are not in school, and some of the money ended up in personal accounts. We have commenced investigations into these findings.”

    The ICPC chairman said under its 2020 constituency and executive projects tracking initiative, 722 projects with a threshold of N100 million were tracked across 16 states.

    He said a number of projects described as ”ongoing” in the budget were found to be new projects that ought to have been excluded so as to enable the government to complete existing projects.

    According to Owasanoye, the agency also discovered over N2.5 billion appropriated by a deceased senior civil servant in the ministry of agriculture for himself while in office.

    On asset recovery, he said the commission recovered N16 billion from the ministry of agriculture paid into individual accounts for non-official purposes.

    He listed other assets recovered in the ministry to include 18 buildings, 12 business premises and 25 plots of land.

  • We spent N523m on school feeding during lockdown – FG

    We spent N523m on school feeding during lockdown – FG

    The Nigerian Government spent about N523.3 million on school feeding programme during the lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.

    Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD), Sadiya Farouq, disclosed this at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja.

    Farouk made the revelation against the rumours and speculations going around one of the key interventions of the government – the Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

    She said that the programmed was modified and implemented in three states 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.

    “The provision of ‘Take Home Rations’, under the modified Home Grown School Feeding programme, was not a sole initiative of the MHADMSD.

    “The ministry, in obeying the Presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the state Governor’s Forum, following which it was resolved that ‘take-home rations’, remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lockdown.

    “So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out take-home rations.

    “The stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states, as pilot cases,’’ the minister said.

    According to her, each take home ration was valued at N4,200 and that the figure was arrived at with proper consultation.

    The minister said that the figure was generated from statistics provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN)

    “According to statistics from the NBS and CBN, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to six members in its household, with three to four dependents.

    “So, each household is assumed to have three children.

    “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.

    “Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month and that was how we arrived at the cost of the ‘take-home ration’.

    “The agreement was that the federal government will provide the funding while the states will implement.

    “To ensure transparency in the process, we partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) as technical partners.’’

    She said that her ministry invited government agencies like the EFCC, CCB, ICPC, DSS and some NGOs to monitor the process.

    “TrackaNG monitored and gave daily updates validating the programme.

    “In the FCT, 29,609 households were impacted, 37,589 households in Lagos and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, and July 6.

    “If 124,589 households received take-home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800″, she said.

  • School feeding: Sokoto earmarks N5.4bn for 1m students

    The Sokoto State Government says it has earmarked over N5.4 billion to feed no fewer than one million students in its primary and secondary schools in 2017.

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Alhaji Mainasara Ahmed, disclosed this in Gusau on Thursday.

    He spoke at a three-day workshop organized by a USAID-assisted Leadership, Empowerment, Advocacy and Development (LEAD) Project being implemented in Sokoto and Bauchi States.

    ”These pupils and students are currently studying in both boarding and non boarding schools across the 23 local government areas in the state.

    ”This money also includes the homegrown school feeding programme to be jointly undertaken by both the federal and state governments.

    ”The gesture is aimed at shoring up students’ enrolment, retention and completion, especially girl child education,” he said.

    Ahmed disclosed that the state government had established the female education, secondary education and examinations boards to improve the standard of education in the state.

     

    NAN