…as Tinubu suspends all NSIPA-related programmes
Less than a month after it was approved for reintroduction and implementation across the basic educational levels to address the issues facing out-of-school children, the school feeding programme of the Federal Government has been suspended.
This is a fallout of President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of all programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) following allegations of malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes. The school feeding programme is run by the NSIPA.
The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) was initiated by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 but it was later discontinued.
On Thursday, December 21, 2023, at a One-Day Retreat on Quick Wins in the Ministerial Deliverables (2023-2027) in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, announced that President Tinubu had directed the restoration of the programme which, he said, would help in checking the learning crisis.
But a statement signed by the Director of Information, for the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, said President Tinubu had suspended all NSIPA-related programmes further to the ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.
“All four (4) Programmes administered by NSIPA, viz; N- Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme (the “Programs”) have been suspended for a period of six (6) weeks in the first instance,” the statement said.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the Programs’ beneficiaries.
“He has therefore constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the Agency’s operations with a view to recommending necessary reforms of the NSIPA.
“During the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations and registrations are now frozen.
“The President wishes to assure the stakeholders and all Nigerians that his administration remains dedicated to a swift and unbiased process that will ensure that, going forward, social intervention programmes will work exactly as intended, to the benefit of the most vulnerable Nigerians,” it said.
