President Bola Tinubu has approved the allocation of 20 percent of food intervention programmes to be channeled through religious and traditional institutions.
Vice President Kashim Shettima announced this on Tuesday during a dialogue on nutrition in Nigeria held with faith leaders at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Addressing concerns raised by the Imam of Bayero University (BUK) about the exclusion of traditional and religious leaders in the distribution of palliatives, Shettima stated, “The President has approved that 20 per cent of the palliative in terms of food intervention be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
“The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such intervention.”
To facilitate the smooth implementation of the initiative, the Ministry of Agriculture will coordinate and streamline the distribution.
Additionally, Shettima revealed that 20 percent of the funds allocated for FG’s School Feeding Programme would be channeled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to religious bodies to further strengthen the collaboration between the government and faith-based organizations.
“This intervention will be anchored in the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, and he is going to anchor the programme.
“We are going to provide the overall supervision towards the implementation of the programme,” said the VP who added that the government had already commenced engagement and working out modalities for the intervention to ensure transparent disbursement.