School feeding: FG releases N394m to food vendors in Gombe

The federal government said it released the sum of N394 million to 2, 089 vendors in Gombe State for the National Home Growth School Feeding Programme (HGSFP).

The Focal Person/Special Adviser on Social Investment Programme (SIP) in the state, Hajiya Maryam Isa Mele, disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the weekend in Gombe.

She said the money was meant for the feeding of 1, 209 (Primary 1-3) pupils of public primary schools across the 11 local government areas of the state.

Maryam Mele said N197 million was released in the first tranche in February and N197 million was released for the second tranche in March.

She tackled Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje, who said he was yet to see any beneficiary of the SIP in his state, adding, “contrary to Goje’s claim, Gombe State has benefited immensely from the programme since its inception in 2016.”

The focal person said 2, 840 people are currently benefiting in the first batch of N-Power programme across the 11 LGAs of the state.

“Also 21,000 people have applied in the second batch of the programme and 8, 251 were pre-selected and underwent verification after which 7,000 were verified and sent to the national office for enrolment,” she said.

According to her the beneficiaries of N-power from the three senatorial districts are; Gombe Central (548), Gombe South (594), while Gombe North has 1,692 slots.

Mele said that for the school feeding programme, 515 food vendors are from Gombe-Central, 1,023 from GombeSouth, and 1,282 from Gombe-North.

She added that for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), one ward in Yamaltu/Deba LGA was captured with 1,373 beneficiaries, four wards in Balanga LGA with 3, 022 and four wards of Nafada LGA have 1, 352 beneficiaries.

“Very soon the CCT programme will be extended to the remaining wards across the remaining eight LGAs,” she said.