By joshua 
The administration of President Mohammadu Buhari says it is fully committed to the cause of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq
made the disclosure at high-level engagement with Gov. Yahaya Bello, during the official flag off of Handover of Feeding Utensils to Primary Schools under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in Kogi the State.
The Minister said the federal government has through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development recently announced the Batch C Npower enrollment which will see 1 million unemployed Nigerian Youth gaining useful life and technical skills they can convert into small business that they can use to support themselves.
The Minister disclosed that in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to lift millions out of poverty and unemployment, directed the expansion of the Npower program to reach additional beneficiaries.
According to the Minister, through the CCT Program, the Federal Government is providing vulnerable persons, those who are the poorest of the poor with cash assistance on a monthly basis to help them afford basic necessities of life, added that recently cash grants was provided to rural women across thousands of communities.
The Federal Government according to the Minister is supporting skilled and micro business individuals and groups with small loans to help operate their business under the GEEP Program.
She also disclosed that efforts has recently been made to revamp and structure the GEEP Program to operate from the Local Governments and communities so that the impact will truly be felt by those who truly need it, added that efforts is on at providing thousands of traders, trades people and small holder farmers with the financial support needed to elevate their businesses.
On the National Home-Grown School feeding program, the Federal Government she explained is providing 1 free meal to over 9 million pupils in primary schools across the Nation, said efforts is on to provide funds to the State selected vendors and aggregators to feed more pupils and cooks in schools.
She said in the school feeding value chain, hundreds of jobs are created with people earning much needed income, said with the directives from Mr. President, efforts is on to add 5 million more pupils into the school feeding program.
She described the engagement meeting as a platform for to seek further support on strengthening the implementation of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Program.
As a collaborative effort, the Federal Government and the State Government the Minister explained has a shared responsibility and specific roles on the provision of the free meals to the children.
While assuring that the Federal Government will continue to provide the funds and the guidelines needed to drive the program, urged the State Government to be responsible for the implementation.
The Minister called on the State Government to consider deploying additional support in order to ensure that the school feeding program delivers on its objectives in the best possible ways.
She advocated building the capacity of state administrative teams and vendors by the State Government while also providing adequate budgetary support to the State school feeding program.
She assured that the Federal Government will continue to provide funds for the feeding and the logistics of procuring, preparing, and serving the meals only, while administrative funds for monitoring and other functions need to be adequately provided for by the State Government.
Additionally, she said the State Government should design ways to provide funds for feeding primary 4-6, expressed optimism of the State Government support in this area in the nearest future.
The Minister equally sought the kind support for continuous sensitization of communities and individuals through the various structures on the importance of the program and the need for it to be safeguarded from all forms of corrupt practices by those who have been entrusted to prepare the meals, supply the food items, and even coordinate the activities, adding that with such interventions the program will succeed and thrive in the State.
The Minister said the various activities and interventions under the National Social Investment Programs are the Federal Government’s key social protection mechanism for the many vulnerable groups in our Nation.