The Federal Government has disclosed that it has spent the sum of N95 million so far in the National Homegrown Feeding programme for Ebonyi State pupils.
This was disclosed by Mr Sunday Mbam, Manager of the programme in Ebonyi, on Friday in Abakaliki during the enumeration exercise by a team from the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, among other stakeholders.
What the manager of the programme in Ebonyi State said
Mbam said that the pupils were, however, fed for only 40 days: 20 days in May and another 20 days in July 2021.
“The money was spent on feeding 64,301 pupils in 557 benefiting primary schools with the cost of feeding a pupil being N70.
“We have 762 cooks who had been paid till date and the enumeration will determine whether their number and that of the benefiting pupils are verifiable,” he said.
“The pandemic forced schools on break with pupils being fed for only 20 days in January 2020.
“Ebonyi was not part of the feeding programme for pupils during COVID-19 period but arrangements were made for a take home ration programme for pupils.
“The arrangement could, however, not be implemented with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and such extended till 2021,” he added.
Mbam also said that after a review by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of cooks dropped from 1,400 to 762 and 1,050 pupils to 557 due to unexplained reasons.
