The Federal Government has so far released a total of N844, 360, 550 for the commencement of the homegrown school feeding programme in seven states across the country.

This was made known by Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, in a statement made available to journalists on Monday.

According to Akande, “the states that have received funding to begin the scheme include Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Zamfara.”

He explained that out of the seven states that have been funded only two, Ebonyi and Zamfara States, are yet to fully commence the school feeding programme.

He however assured that the scheme will fully kick off in the two states this week.

Akande noted that “the Federal Government had earmarked N500bn for the SIP (Special Intervention Programme) in the 2016 Budget while the same amount had been proposed for it in the 2017 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly.”

“That means, the Buhari Presidency’s Homegrown School Feeding Programme would be feeding this week a total of 1, 043, 205 pupils in those seven states.

“Equally a total number of 11,775 cooks have now been employed to prepare the meals in those states already, while local farmers in the states are also the one producing the food prepared and served.”

Giving a state by state breakdown of the programme, Akande stated that “of all the states, Anambra, which was the first state to receive Federal Government’s funding late last year has now received three full funding tranches covering 30 school days, totaling N188, 769,000. The state has a total of 937 cooks and feeding 96,489 pupils.

“In Ebonyi, the Federal Government has also released a total of N115, 218,600, while 1466 cooks have been engaged and 164, 598 pupils are to be fed.

“Also in Enugu State, government has released N67,244, 800 to feed 96, 064 pupils and 1,128 cooks engaged.”

Akande also revealed N119, 648, 900 was released for Ogun State to cater for the feeding of 170, 927 pupils while 1,381 cooks have been engaged for the purpose.

In Osun State, a total of N92, 425, 400 has so far been released to feed 142, 193 pupils with 2,688 cooks engaged.

Oyo State has had a total of N72, 288, 300 released to it for the feeding of 103, 269 pupils, and 1,437  cooks have been employed, while in Zamfara State, N188, 765, 500 has been released to feed 269, 665 pupils and engage 2, 738 cooks.