Kebbi Spends N280m on School Feeding –Official
The Kebbi state government said on Monday that it spent more than N280 million monthly, on its school feeding programmes.
Alhaji Mohammad Magawata, state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education said this at a two-day Media Dialogue on Cash Transfer Programme (CTP), sponsored by the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) in Birnin Kebbi.
He said that the programme was aimed at enhancing enrolment, retention and completion, and further reduce the number of out of school children in the state.
Magawata noted that the influx of people from neighbouring countries like Niger, Chad and Benin Republic had contributed to the increase in the number of out of school children in the state.
According to him, we are doing very much to sustain the programme; even after UNICEF completes the programmes in the northern part of the country, we can still continue through our own programmes to ensure those who are in school remain.
” We have our own local programmes of assisting children. We do this by helping in the payment of school fees and school feeding.
” Every month, Kebbi state spends over N280 million on feeding. This we give for free to improving interests in going to school and also retention of children in school.
” This year alone, we have also spent over two billion naira for only providing furniture in our schools,” he said.
The commissioner also noted that the state has absorbed over 500,000 beneficiaries.
He said that an additional 400,000 beneficiaries were also absorbed during its mopping exercise.
He, therefore, expressed optimism at the impact of the (CTP) towards changing the mindsets of parent who may want to refuse their children from attending conventional schools, saying the CTP had brought tremendous improvement to its educational sector. (NAN)
