The modified homegrown school feeding programme, launched on May 21, as part of palliatives offered by the Lagos state government to cushion the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been concluded.

The programme, which basically modified the already existing school feeding programme, was targeted at providing food packages for 37,589 households of pupils in Public Primary Schools years 1-3.

According to an official tweet from the Lagos state government, the programme was concluded on Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

The Modified Homegrown School Feeding Programme, which was flagged off in Lagos on the 21st of May, 2020 and targeted at 37,589 households of pupils in Public Primary Schools years 1-3, has been concluded@jidesanwoolu @lagossubeb#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos #CovidLASG pic.twitter.com/lWrQscf6NW

— The Lagos State Govt (@followlasg) June 2, 2020

The Executive Chairman of Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, LASUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, noted that the distribution of the packages to the beneficiary households took off on May 21, and was spread across 202 centres across the 20 Local Government Education Authorities in the State.

(READ MORE:COVID-19: Lagos receives N200 Million, 5 ambulances from BUA Foundation)

Items contained in the Take-home rations:

Each beneficiary of the packages received a take-home ration made up of “5kg Bag of Rice; 5kg Bag of Beans; 500 ml Vegetable Oil; 750ml Palm Oil; 500mg Salt; 15 pieces of eggs and 140gm Tomato Paste,” which is expected to assist the parents and guardians feed the children as they remain at home during the prolonged holiday.

He explained that each beneficiary received a Take-Home Ration made up of 5kg Bag of Rice; 5kg Bag of Beans; 500 ml Vegetable Oil; 750ml Palm Oil; 500mg Salt; 15 pieces of eggs and 140gm Tomato Paste@jidesanwoolu @lagossubeb#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos #CovidLASG

— The Lagos State Govt (@followlasg) June 2, 2020

What you should know:

The Federal government also introduced a modified homegrown school feeding programme on May 15 to be coordinated by the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq.

Farouq noted during one of the Presidential Task Force media briefings that the distribution of Take-Home Rations (THR) to the households of the children on the programme as a feasible method, after exploring several options of reaching children in vulnerable households.

Each Take-Home Ration is said to be worth N4,200, although the Minister has not released full details of the programme.

According to the World Food programme, there are 17 countries currently distributing Take-Home rations to school children. In Liberia, Take Home Rations have been distributed since 2019.

Some hours ago, Bitcoin rose above $10,000 for the first time in six weeks in a move that seems to show a bullish momentum as the $10,000 resistance mark been broken.

However, during the rally, over $100 million worth of Bitcoin short positions were liquidated as Bitcoin plunged by nearly $1,500 in less than 3 minutes, before rebounding to around $9,458. Bitcoin is trading at $9,540 4 am local time.

Bitcoin’s plunge was bad news for the bulls. By falling back below the $10,000 psychological support, it has shown a likely downward trend as investors start to close their positions.

According to data retrieved from crypto derivatives platform, Skew.com, an approximate $96 million worth of long positions were wiped with this lower move. This is lower than the $125 million liquidation event that took place when BTC took out $10,000 yesterday, suggesting that the market was leaning to such a trend.

(READ MORE:Tether, the most promising stable coin, now the third most valuable cryptocurrency)

Things you need to understand about Bitcoin’s volatility

The price of Bitcoin is so volatile because of its high use for financial gain by investors and crypto traders. As such, individuals and hedge funds sell and buy Bitcoins like they would do for any other financial asset (Stocks, bonds) with regulatory limitations.

One of the key biases touted by Bitcoin bears is that Bitcoin remains below the key resistance of $10,500 and has refused to break that mark since early 2020.

$10,500 is the level at which the bitcoin price was rejected during two crucial rallies over the past 12 months.

The fact that BTC has made successive takes at the level without breaking past it suggests that the crypto market is still situated in a downtrend. 

(READ MORE:Electroneum, a Cryptocurrency, to launch electricity Top-Ups in Nigeria)

Robert Sluymer of Fundstrat Global Advisors, for instance, recently commented on the importance of the level. He said:

“Next directional move on tap for BTC’s as bull-bear convictions are about to be tested. Bears can point to the downtrend at 10-10.5K. Bulls have the long-term uptrend (200-week SMA) at their back and the past week’s resilience as BTC’s quickly rebounded from its 200-DMA.”

The naira was weakened at the parallel market on Monday, thereby depreciating against the dollar. This is the first depreciation of the naira in about two weeks, after four consecutive rounds of appreciation against the dollar.

According to information obtained from Abokifx, the naira depreciated to N445 to a dollar on Monday, June 2, 2020. This shows a loss of N5 (or 1.14% decline) when compared to the N440 to a dollar that was recorded last week Friday.

The local currency was weakened at the parallel market following the announcement of the resumption of domestic flight operations on June 21, 2020, by the Federal Government. The uncertainty resulting from the delayed resumption of sales of dollars to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators also contributed.

In a related development, the local currency was stable at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, having recorded no movement. The naira exchanged at N385.50 to a dollar on Monday, June 2, 2020, which was the same rate it ended with on Friday last week. This came against the backdrop of a marginal increase in the daily turnover to $34.35 million at the I&E window, marking an increase of $2.95 million when compared to the $31.40 million that was recorded the previous trading day. In other words, this represents a 9.4% increase in dollar supply to the window.

(READ MORE: Naira drops to N460 against dollar)

Recall that on April 29, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria had announced the resumption of weekly sales of $100 million dollars for school fees and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in order to help reduce the pressure on the naira in the foreign exchange market. To a large extent, this has helped to reduce pressure on the naira.

However, despite improvement in the price of crude oil around the world and its positive effect on the country’s foreign exchange earnings, the reopening of the economy is expected to put more pressure on the naira as more businesses try to meet up with accumulated obligations.