The federal government has developed an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-driven system to monitor every process in the school feeding value chain.

Aderemi Adebowale, national programme manager, National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

He said an end-to-end application has been put in place to ensure transparency and accountability in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

Ms Adebowale was reacting to public outcry that trailed a recent announcement by Vice President Kashim Shettima that Nigeria might require an annual budget of about N1 trillion to sustain nationwide coverage of the NHGSFP.

Mr Shettima spoke during the National Policy Forum on the Institutionalisation and Implementation of the Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, organised by ActionAid Nigeria.

Represented by the special adviser to the president on economic affairs, Tope Fasua, the vice president stressed that the programme should not be seen as a financial burden but as a nation-building investment with significant social, economic, and security benefits.

Many Nigerians had, however, expressed doubts over the claim, contending that past implementation of the school feeding initiative was riddled with loopholes, inflated contracts, and weak oversight.

They expressed the fear that announcing such a massive figure without providing a clear breakdown could erode public trust.

According to the critics, during the last administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari, the initiative, instead of serving its purpose, was tainted by corruption and turned into a channel for diverting money.

Reassuring the critics, Ms Adebowale said that the ICT-driven innovation in monitoring the programme would block every loophole for mismanagement.

“We are going to be using an end-to-end app that monitors anywhere our money goes.

“For instance, the cooks are no longer going to be getting paid to go and buy the food items for the children.

“We will pay the suppliers when we monitor that they have delivered to the local government where they are supposed to deliver.

“They will, in turn, package the food items, give them to the cook for preparation for the children,” he said.

Ms Adebowale added, “Every day, the cooks are monitored by our ward verifiers to ensure that they bring the food to school. And as these are being done, we are documenting everything.

“There will be a dashboard where movement, feeding of the children in every school in Nigeria, will be seen live, and then we will store it in the cloud.

“So, we have put a system in place, an enhanced platform where Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is going to be very strong.

“From our suppliers, to our agri-vendors, to our farmers, to our cooks, to our verifiers; the end-to-end app will monitor every movement, including logistics.”

The NHGSFP programme manager added that the agency also partnered with a lot of developing partners on social investment programmes.

He said some of the women working in the chain, such as cooks and farmers, would be trained and empowered through the assistance of the developing partners.

“The Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is, therefore, a robust feeding programme now in Nigeria.

“It is going to be run openly and transparently, putting out every detail to the public space for accountability, unlike the way it had been done before,” he said.

Ms Adebowale added that to further promote transparency, all their suppliers would be registered on a platform, with their National Identification Number, while a QR code.

“With the QR code, once any food or item that has been purchased does not meet up to standard, we will know where the item is from.

“So, there is a lot that has been put in place now, for the standardisation and sustainability of the school feeding programme,” he said.

The Home-Grown School Feeding Programme aimed to accommodate 10 million pupils in 2024 and planned to scale up to 20 million children in 2025.

These targets were part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, which restructured the programme to increase school enrollment and reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country.

(NAN)