NAN-H-8
Training
By Muhammad Nasir Bashir
Dutse, Feb. 22, 2017 (NAN) The Federal Government on Wednesday commenced training of 135 stakeholders in Jigawa under its Homegrown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
Mr Dotun Adebayor, a representative from the Office of the Vice President, said the two-day training workshop would focus on developing a sustainable school feeding programme in the state.
Adebayor stated that the training was aimed to build the capacity of the stakeholders on how best to implement the programme.
Adebayor added that it was also to educate the trainees on what the programme was all about for its successful implementation in the state.
According to him, the program will be implemented through collaboration and cooperation between the state’s ministries of Agriculture, Health, Education, Commerce and Women Affairs.
“By this workshop, the Federal Government is showing its readiness to roll-out the programme in Jigawa.
“Once all stakeholders had understood what we are about to do, then the Federal Government will be ready to fund the programme,” he said.
Also speaking, the state Deputy Governor, Mr Ibrahim Hassan, commended the Federal Government for the gesture, noting that the HGSFP would go a long way in addressing nutritional deficiency among school children.
‘’We give highest political will to all the Federal Government’s safety net programmes, so any opportunity like this is a welcome development to us and our people,’’ Hassan said.
He however noted that the programme would increase children’s enrollment in schools, and as such government would have to provide more classrooms.
“There is the need for more classrooms to take care of the number of pupils that may enroll in schools due to this feeding programme.
“There is also need for the governments to address teacher deficiency in the state,” he said
The deputy governor also expressed concern over the method of payment for the exercise, pointing out that most of the prospective food vendors were rural dwellers and had no bank accounts.
“This programme will fail if it insisted that the vendor must have bank accounts with BVN.
‘’Even some of them that mighty have bank accounts would have to travel to other local government areas to access their banks.
“Because of the distance, some of them will be spending almost all their gains in transporting themselves to banks, and if care is not taken, most of them might abandon the feeding programme.
‘’We, therefore, advised that simple payment methods using mobile banking agents be utilized’’, the deputy governor advised. (NAN)
MNB/YMU/ASH