The Federal Government has began the biometric data capturing for 196, 873 pupils in public schools in Nasarawa state for the ongoing scaling up of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
The NHGSFP was designed as a multi-faceted intervention by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to drive school enrolment and retention, boost nutrition of the pupils, support local production of food and encourage income generation.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, disclosed this on Wednesday in Lafia.
Farouq represented by Mr Abdullahi Usman, Technical Adviser to the Minister, inaugurated the capturing in two schools; Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Lafia East and Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) Nassarawa-Eggon.
The minister also said that the exercise would capture the data of 2, 081 food vendors across the 13 local government areas of the state.
Farouq said the exercise was aimed at authenticating the data of pupils and vendors to ensure proper planning.
She noted that pupils from primary one to three from 1, 203 public schools were currently benefiting from the programme in the state.
“We would be carrying out enumeration of pupils on yearly basis to enable us capture more beneficiaries and as well update our database.
“The yearly verification would also help us capture newly admitted pupils and those on transfer from other schools,” Farouq said.
She appealed to parents, teachers and other stakeholders to support the efforts of the Federal Government to take children off the streets and improve school enrolment.
On his part, Imran Jibril, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa on Humanitarian Services, lauded the Federal Government for extending the gesture to the state.
Jibril, who is also the state focal person on National Social Investment Programme, said the programme since inception had increased the enrolment of pupils.
He expressed the determination of the state government to support the programme to achieve the desired objectives.
Responding on behalf of other pupils, Abdulmumuni Badamase, a primary two pupil of LGEA Lafia East, expressed gratitude to the federal and state governments for the gesture.
Badamase appealed for the expansion of the initiative to primary four to six pupils.
Also, Habiba Yakubu, a food vendor at RCM Nassarawa-Eggon, expressed gratitude to the government for engaging and empowering them.
Yakubu, however, appealed to the government to increase their monthly allowances due to high cost of food items. (NAN)
