The federal government has said it will launch the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme for primary school pupils in Kwara State this month.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, disclosed this during the handover of feeding utensils to the Kwara State government under the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme in Ilorin.

According to her, the intervention is part of activities for bringing Kwara State into the scheme which will be officially launched this month.

Kwara State is yet to commence the one meal per day feeding programme for pupils several years after its commencement.

Represented by a deputy director in the ministry, Hajiya Safiyat Sanni, Hajiya Sadiya said the programme is a collaboration between the FG and state governments designed to address poverty in all its forms.

She said the federal government plans to bring onboard another set of five million pupils into the scheme.

“While addressing cross-cutting issues of hunger, malnutrition and poverty, we have, thus far, recorded over nine million pupils on the programme being fed by over 100,000 cooks,” she said.

Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq commended the federal government for the commencement of the programme, adding, “this programme has a tendency to increase attendance in our schools, provide good nutrition and improve the local economy, especially among farmers.”