Buhari To Give Primary School Pupils Free Meals

The vice-president of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, revealed on Tuesday, September 1, that the Buhari administration will soon start giving out free meals to school children, therefore fulfilling one of the president’s campaign promises. The vice president said that the free meals scheme was a core project of the federal government that would in turn yield about 1.14 million jobs and an increase in food production, The Punch reports. Osinbajo said this at the 45th Annual Accountants Conference in Abuja. He further said the government would be investing more in the people, in education and job creation. The vice-president spoke on the topic “Repositioning Nigeria for Sustainable Development: From Rhetoric to Performance”. Osinbajo said that the introduction of the school meals scheme would help to create 1.14 million new jobs; increase food production by up to 530,000 metric tonnes per annum, as well as attract fresh investments up to N980bn. He said there are plans to empower extremely poor households financially. Noting that there is Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) for 25 million “extremely” poor households. He however said in order to benefit from the CCT, there are two conditions. He said beneficiaries must be vulnerable and fulfill their civic responsibilities. They must participate in polio vaccination, school enrolment and support other government programmes. “One of the most important interventions required in the education sector is capacity building to improve teacher quality. This programme is intended to drive teachers’ capacity development; boost basic education; attract talents to the teaching profession. Better educated population increases economic potential for productivity. The All Progressives Congress has made a commitment to provide one-meal-a-day for all primary school students; that would create jobs in agriculture, including poultry, catering and delivery services.” “So, why are most (of our people) poor despite rising revenues and GDP growth? Our main revenue earners, the extractive oil and gas economy, do not by themselves create many jobs. Such is the irony of a top-down economic model; when the major revenue earner is extractive and the value chain is poorly developed,” he said. Osinbajo also raised the need to have an improved power sector. He said: “despite the challenges, there have been measurable improvements over the past three months (June to August 2015).” He also made it known that there are plans for the administration to fight piracy, and to diversify the economy in the agriculture sector to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and wheat (staples) production; and in the areas of manufacturing; entertainment and technology. Meanwhile, Muhammadu Buhari has announced his government’s commitment to taking all required action to stop perpetual strikes by workers in vital spheres of the Nigerian economy. Source: Naij