Date: 2020-03-11

The Kwara State Government has urged interested members of the public to collect forms to be engaged as vendors for the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSF).

The Focal Person for the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) in Kwara State, Mrs Basheerah AbdulRazaq said in a statement that the forms are available at the offices of the Education Secretaries across the 16 local government areas of the state.

"The government hereby directs all the education secretaries to release the forms to the people immediately. The forms are not to be hoarded or sold. His Excellency has directed that the forms must get to the grassroots to serve the purpose of benefiting the poorest of the poor," she said.

"We want to repeat that this form is completely free. Nobody should pay anything. Having given his full support through necessary logistics, His Excellency the Governor has graciously approved the distribution of the forms as we get set to begin the first phase of the school feeding that is sponsored by the Federal Government," she added.

She said the forms are to be submitted latest by March 23rd.

Designed to boost nutrition and jerk up school enrolment, the school feeding programme was conceived in 2016 by the Federal Government for children in primary one to three.

Kwara is extending the programme under its soon-to-begin Social Investment Programme to capture the remaining primary 4 to 6 school children in the state — the fourth state to do such comprehensive school feeding after Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, and Osun.

When the Kwara school feeding begins later in this third quarter, the state would become the 35th state to key into the programme.