The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadia Umar Faruq, has said over two million pupils are presently benefiting from the Federal Government homegrown school feeding programme in Kano.

According to the minister, Kano has the highest share of beneficiaries out of over 12 million pupils enjoying the social investment intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Faruq disclosed this at the opening of capacity building for 88 selected food vendors engaged in the school feeding programme in Kano.

The minister, who was represented by her technical assistant, Alh. Abubakar Ibrahim Hashim explained that the intervention presently running into its sixth year is tremendously fulfilling set objectives.

Although the minister contended that more pupils are yet to be brought on stream, she expressed satisfaction the ingenuity of the programme, saying it is boosting school enrolment and gradually reducing the rate of out-of-school children in the country.

Faruq, explained that the government was not only concerned about huge resources invested in the feeding programme, but also care about the nutritional and hygienic value of meals being dished out to the kids in the public schools across the country, hence need for the capacity building for the cooks.

Tagged master cooks training, Faruq stressed that out of over 12,000 food vendors and aggregators engaged for the programme in Kano, two vendors were selected each across the 44 local councils to participate in the training. He said the master cooks are expected to retrain others in their local councils.

“We have over 12, 000 cooks in Kano, and the objective is to train the master cooks on how to carry out their duties under hygenic environment and to ensure pupils are well feed. We have selected 2 master cooks each from the 44 councils for the training and that will give you 88 cooks who would soon step down the same training to other vendors.

“The intention is to ensure hygienic condition of the meal and standardise the supply and distribution for the pupils. So far, we have recorded a tremendous increase in children’s enrolment in school. It has improved assimilation levels and retention in pupils. We are moving to capture 12, 000 million more,” she noted.

On his part, the Coordinator of the programme in Kano, Alh. Babba Aminu Zubair, told journalists that the feeding programme is presently enhancing economic viability and creating employment for hundreds of youth, especially women.

Apart from building the capacity of the cooks, Zubair explained that the government has set up various monitoring and evaluation committees among the local community, to ensure quality assurance.

Zubair, who debunked alleged cases of deduction and shortage of the cooks, insisted that over 400 cooks who received money from the government and absconded should rather be accused. He pledged efforts of government to track and block those supposed criminals with a view to bring them to book.