Why Kwara is embracing school feeding programme- Gov. AbdulRazaq

Gov. AbdulRazaq said the statistics of stunted and wasted children in the state until May 2019 the highest in the north central region is scary and must be reversed to give every child a head start in life.

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“I am very passionate about school feeding for our children. This is because the socio-economic cost of not urgently acting against malnutrition and dwindling school enrolment far outweighs whatever financial commitments we will be making to the programme,” Gov. AbdulRazaq said this while declaring open a two-day stakeholders workshop on the national home grown school feeding programme in Ilorin, the state capital.

“As at May last year, 33 per cent of our children were stunted, while another seven per cent were adjudged as wasted. This is scary; it is something that must be addressed immediately.”

“The workshop heralds many great things to expect from the administration, particularly in the areas of human capital development and safety nets for the weak and the poor.

“This meeting has been called to get all the stakeholders on the same page ahead of implementation of the national home grown school feeding programme in Kwara state. I must also thank the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq for her commitment towards the inclusion of the state in the scheme,” the governor added.

Gov. AbdulRazaq also encouraged mothers to prioritise exclusive breastfeeding, assuring Kwarans that the school feeding scheme would boost the local economy through patronage of local farmers and entrepreneurs.

“The success of this initiative would depend largely on the implementation committee. This is why I charge you all to ensure that you do everything to make it a success,” he stated.

National Programme Manager of the scheme, Abimbola Adesanmi recalled that the school feeding programme was initially inaugurated in Kwara state in 2017 without success owing to lack of funding for it.

“I must commend the governor’s commitment to this. The state is now starting with a big bang by having a law backing the social investment programme and also committing to scaling up the programme from primary four to primary six.

“Our aim is to provide one hot nutritious meal to pupils across the country and our target is 12 million children for pupils from primary one to three in all public primary schools,” Adesanmi said.

She said 8.6 million pupils are already benefiting from the feeding programme across 35 states; a figure she said would peak when Kwara begins later in the first quarter of 2020.

State Focal Person for the school feeding programme, Bashirah AbdulRazaq, said the programme which began with the federal government seeks to guarantee equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, women and youths.