At a two-day stakeholder’s consultative workshop on the development of a national policy for NHGSFP in Abuja, the National Coordinator, National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Dr Umar Bindir, said the Federal Government spends about ₦12 billion on the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes (NHGSFP) monthly under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD).

According to Dr Umar, the school feeding programme is very expensive as over 10 million children a ₦100 meal – per child – increased from ₦70 to ₦100.

“As we speak we are feeding an average of 10 million children with the potential of that number increasing to 12 million probably in the next few weeks or months.

“Based on the impact of the programme – attracting children to school, ensuring the children are healthy, the children of the poor and vulnerable attending school longer it is necessary that the programme is sustained,’’ he said.

At the event, one of the participants, Dr Onallo Akpa, Director–General, Poultry Association of Nigeria, said that the essence of the programme was to ensure that the children have a nutritious meal.

Why would the school feeding programme matter in the first place?

The majority of children in Nigeria live in poverty. And, extreme poverty has disturbed nearly every aspect of child development including education, nutrition, safety and hygiene. 

According to the Harmonised Nigeria Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) in 2010, 70.3% of Nigerian children lived in poverty while 23.2% lived in extreme poverty. There is no recent data to update the 2010 version, but we know that Nigeria has 10.5 million out of school children, the highest rate in the world, according to United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

In a 2012 publication, I. Yunusa, Ahmed Muhammed Gumel, Khalid Adegbusi, and Sherif Adegbusi say that “malnutrition disorders affect more than 42% of school children in Nigeria and are responsible for 49% absenteeism of primary-school-age children. School Feeding Program (SFPs) is designed to overcome malnutrition disorders through regular school-feeding to improve the health/nutrition status and the educational abilities of school children.”

This may be why the country officially launched the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in 2016 at a special meeting of Federal and State ministers and school feeding stakeholders. It was created in 2015.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who gave the keynote address, reiterated that nutrition is key in enabling children usefully participate, learn, develop mentally and physically compete in an increasingly competitive global environment.

“Today, we lay an important building block in securing our future by mapping out the implementation plan to ensure that even the most disadvantaged children are free from malnutrition.“

At the time, Nigeria had a school dropout rate of 30 per cent.

Through the NHGSFP, under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the government provides a meal daily for pupils in years one to three in government-owned primary schools.

Historical timeline

In March 2020, the Federal Government says it disbursed over ₦6 billion since the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme started in 2016.

“A total of ₦6,643,432,789 billion have been disbursed by the Federal Government since the school feeding programme kicked off late last year,” a statement said.

In August 2020, the Federal Government says it has spent ₦5.178 billion on School Feeding Programme from its inception in 2017 till date in Jigawa.

In June 2021, the Federal Government announced it has spent ₦1.5 billion monthly on its School Feeding Programme in Kano.

The Governor, Umar Ganduje, cited that the reason the FG spent so much on the school feeding programme is that the state has a high population, and the state also runs a free and compulsory education system with the integration of Almajiri into basic education.

Commissioner of Education, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi-Kiru, revealed that Kano currently has 1.2 million pupils benefitting from the school feeding programme.

“Kano has a total of 12,258 food vendors, who are also beneficiaries of the programme. Each cook receives ₦82,000 every 16 days to prepare food for the pupils in primaries one to three in the state,” he added.

In August 2021, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development says it spent over ₦1.8 billion on Homegrown School Feeding Programme in three years in Ondo.

In October 2021, Dr Umar spent ₦4.5 billion to feed 228,646 pupils in Gombe since the school feeding programme started in 2016.

Bandir said 1,234 schools in Gombe had benefitted since the programme began.

2022 has no verified data yet, but the school feeding programme is taking enough for Nigeria to be arguing that education is getting better. But, what is the case?