Lagos set asides N11 billion to feed school children

The Lagos State Government on Monday stated that N11 billion had been budgeted for its Snacks for Thought programme.

It clarified that the Snacks for Thought programme was established to enhance the home grown school feeding programme of the Federal Government, which covered only pupils in primary one to primary three.

The government further said that its feeding programme would care for the pupils at the crèche and primary four to primary six.

The Special Adviser of the Office of Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, announced this on Monday during the ministerial press conference honouring the second year anniversary of Governor Sanwo-Olu, in Alausa, Ikeja.

She stated, “The programme will cost the government N11bn. We are going to partner organisation on this. We already have over 400 volunteers that will work with us.”

Adebowale said that a report by UNICEF in 2018 revealed that an estimated 229,264 pupils were out of school in Lagos State.

She added, “In order to curb this rising numbers, we need more than statutory allocations. Intervention such as this will increase the rate of enrolment in schools and serve as a preventive security measure in reducing crime and hooliganism that may later on disrupt the socio-economic life of the state.”

Adebowale declared that more than 2,200 poor pregnant mothers across 11 Local Government Areas of the state had profited from the state’s Mother, Infant and Child programme designed to help indigent pregnant women in the state.

She stated, “The indigent pregnant women were selected from those who attend our Primary Healthcare Centres in the 20 local government and 37 local council development areas of the state.”