How I spent N10bn on feeding progamme in 8 months – El Rufai

The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has announced that the state government spent over N10bn on feeding programme in the state

El Rufai said he had to temporarily put the programme on hold because the Nigerian Government did not provide its counterpart fund for the project.

The governor said this through the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Jonathan Non, during a briefing in the state capital.

However, the governor noted that the state would continue with the programme in July 2017 since it had received N3.4bn, part of the money owed by the Federal Government.

He said, “Kaduna State started partial school feeding in January but stopped it in August. We spent at least N10bn on the school feeding for the eight months.

“The initial arrangement was that classes 1 to 3 pupils would be fed by the Federal Government while pupils in Primary 4 -6 would be fed by the state government. Since the Federal Government was not ready we felt it would be unwise to feed classes 4-6 pupils and leave those in classes 1-3. So, we fed all pupils in government primary schools for eight months. Now, the Federal Government has paid us N3.4bn, being half of the money they owe us.”