The target of the programme is to cover 10 million public primary school students in Nigeria.
The Federal Government of Nigeria is going to restart the Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (RH-NHGSFP) on May 29.
The target of the programme is to cover 10 million public primary school students in Nigeria.
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Yusuf Sununu made the announcement on Wednesday during a meeting with development partners, non-governmental organizations, and government officials in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
He appealed for broad-based support to drive the initiative for reducing child hunger and improving education outcomes nationwide.
“The initiative aims to benefit 10 million children and could increase school enrollment by 20 per cent and academic performance by 15 per cent by 2025,” he said.
Mr. Sununu said the programme aims to provide daily nutritious meals to pupils in primary one to three, using locally grown foods to support both children’s health and rural economies.
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“Our mission is to feed every public school pupil in Primary One to Three, nurturing their potential and building the nation’s future,” he added.
He explained that the May 29 relaunch would also mark President Bola Tinubu’s second anniversary in office, calling it “a big step towards reducing hunger, malnutrition, and poor school enrollment across the country.”
Reaffirming the need for cooperation, accountability, and transparency, the minister encouraged community ownership, parent participation, and training of food handlers. He further highlighted the programme’s potential in empowering women and smallholder farmers.
Development organizations, such as the AMA Foundation, and private entities, including Tetra Pak, pledged to support the occasion. Government officials also announced reform and increased vigilance for sustainability and effectiveness.
RH-NHGSFP National Programme Manager Aderemi Adebowale stated that the programme was a critical investment in Nigeria’s future.
“The revamped RH-NHGSFP will provide daily meals to public primary school children using food that is locally sourced and grown,” she said.
She revealed that N100 billion has been appropriated in 2025 for scaling operations and amplifying local impact. Among a number of innovations are QR-coded supply chains and real-time tracking to enhance transparency and quality control.
“Nutritionists, health practitioners, and supervisors will monitor the quality of food and pupil health and programme outcomes,” Adebowale said.
“Emphasis is still on local procurement, especially through female-headed cooperatives, to reduce rural poverty by 40 per cent.”She said all the beneficiaries would be enrolled and tracked in conjunction with the National Identity Management Commission.
Chief Executive of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Badamasi Lawal, represented by Binta Musa, said the relaunch is a moment of inflection in the fight against inequality and child hunger.
The occasion concluded with calls for stronger partnerships to mainstream the programme into key Sustainable Development Goals.
Past Instances Of Corruption Earlier, Nigeria’s National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), which feeds primary school pupils to improve nutrition among children, increase school enrollment, and benefit local farmers, had a huge problem with corruption in the past. These challenges weakened the programme’s success in realizing its objectives of enhancing nutrition among children, increasing school enrollment, and benefiting local farmers.
One of these high-profile instances was during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown when the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) revealed that it had discovered ₦2.67 billion meant for school feeding in federal colleges had been paid into personal accounts. This was particularly shocking as schools were closed at the time.
In October 2022, the Nasarawa State government found 349 “ghost schools” as beneficiaries in the feeding programme. They were schools that did not exist or schools that had not been enrolled under the scheme, which indicated potential fraudulent claims. There have also been cases where food vendors disappeared after they had been paid without providing meals.
There have been recurring allegations of the low quality and small quantity of meals served to students. This can imply that money meant for good and healthy food has been diverted, causing the meal quality to suffer.
Payment delays and irregularities to food suppliers have been experienced in many states. Additionally, there have been questions over the openness of the procurement process, including possible inflation of costs and contract awards under doubtful terms.
