Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said the Muhammadu Buhari administration would soon begin giving primary school children free meals.
The vice president said the free feeding scheme was a core project (and campaign promise) of the federal government that would create about 1.14 million jobs and increase the country’s food production.
Osinbajo made the announcement at the 45th Annual Accountants Conference in Abuja.
He said the government would be investing more in the people, education and job creation.
Speaking on the topic “Repositioning Nigeria for Sustainable Development: From Rhetoric to Performance,” Osinbajo said that the multiplier effects of the introduction of the school feeding scheme would help to create 1.14 million new jobs; increase food production by up to 530,000 metric tonnes per annum, as well as attract new investments worth N980bn.
In his words, “One of the most important interventions required in the education sector is capacity building to improve teacher quality.
“This programme is intended to drive teachers’ capacity development; boost basic education; attract talents to the teaching profession. A better educated population increases economic potential for productivity.”
“The All Progressives Congress has made a commitment to provide one-meal-a-day for all primary school students; that would create jobs in agriculture, including poultry, catering and delivery services.”
The vice president decried the high rate of unemployment in the country in spite of the fact that Nigeria had recorded high oil prices, Gross Domestic Product and foreign reserves during the previous administrations.
This, according to him, has made it clear that such figures, including a rise in revenue by itself, do not create jobs or significantly reduce poverty level in the country.
“So, why are most (of our people) poor despite rising revenues and GDP growth? Our main revenue earners, the extractive oil and gas economy, do not by themselves create many jobs. Such is the irony of a top-down economic model; when the major revenue earner is extractive and the value chain is poorly developed,” he argued.
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