President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has spent $100 million to feed 10 million Nigerian children under the National School Feeding Programme.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Friday when he received the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leornard and officials of the Department of State who paid him a courtesy visit.
He said the school feeding programme was part of efforts to eliminate the scourge of child labour in the country.
The Nigerian government, he said, introduced the programme to ”lure children engaged in child labour, back to school.”
The minister said, “We have introduced the National school feeding programme under our social security, to lure children back to school. As of today, we are feeding 10 million children across the country. We have spent nearly $100 million on this.
“We have also taken more schools into the areas prone to child labour and made education free in the whole country through the Universal Basic Education Act and the Child Rights Act.
“For the people with disability, we introduced Disability Peoples Commission to give them full and comprehensive aid so that they will not fell that they have any disability. If you don’t support someone with disability, it is outright poverty,” he said.
In his remarks, Leornard said the United States Government was worried to see that Nigerian children were subjected to the worst forms of child labour in quarries and granites and mining sites.
