Nigeria To Provide Free Meals For Primary School Children
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Tags: school
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PRIMARY school children are to be given one free school meal a day by the federal government under new plans aimed at addressing the problem of absenteeism and boosting food production through the creation of 1.4m jobs.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), Nigeria tops the table of 12 problem countries that have a high incidence of school dropout rates with one in every five children not in school.
A total of 10.5m Nigerian kids are not in school at the moment, accounting for about 47% of the global total, with the northeast of the country the most badly affected area.
Too address the problem, the new government has decided to offer free feeding in a strategy it hopes will also serve as a big boost for agriculture. Speaking in Abuja yesterday, vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo said the government would be investing more in the people, education and job creation.
Speaking on the topic Repositioning Nigeria for Sustainable Development: From Rhetoric to Performance, Professor Osinbajo said there will be huge multiplier effects of the policy.
He added that the introduction of the school feeding scheme would help to create 1.14m new jobs, increase food production by up to 530,000 tonnes per annum, as well as attract fresh investments of up to N980bn.
Professor Osinbajo added: “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.”
He decried the high rate of employment in the country in spite of the fact that Nigeria had recorded high oil prices, increased gross domestic product (GDP) and foreign reserves during the previous administrations. This, according to him made it clear that such figures, including a rise in revenue by itself, do not create jobs or significantly reduce poverty level in the country.
“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,” Professor Osinbajo added.
According to the vice president, there was need for the government to improve the power sector and have a one-stop shop for approvals of investments.
Other areas of focus in the Buhari economic plan according to Professor Osinbajo are innovation and fighting piracy, the diversification of the economy in the areas of agriculture to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and wheat production, manufacturing, entertainment and technology.
