FG targets 1.14 million jobs, N980bn investment in one-meal-a-day programme

THE Federal Government has disclosed that the proposed introduction of one-meal-a-day for all primary school pupils across the country will attract investment of over N980 billion and create about 1.14 million new jobs.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this known on Wednesday, at the ongoing 45th Annual Accounting Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), holding at International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Osinbajo, in his speech, entitled: “Repositioning Nigeria for Sustainable Development: From Rhetoric to Performance,” reiterated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had made a commitment to provide one-meal-a-day for all primary school pupils, adding that this would create jobs in agriculture, including poultry, catering and delivery services.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, said the multiplier effects of the introduction of the scheme included “creation of 1.14 million new jobs; increased food production up to 530,000 metric tonnes and investment up to N980 billion.”
He noted that although Nigeria had recorded rising oil prices, Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and foreign reserves during the last administrations of former presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, unemployment had remained also on the rise at the same time, making it clear that such figures, including a rise in revenue by itself, did not create jobs or significantly put a dent to poverty levels in the country.
He said while there were indeed seemingly good growth figures, such figures “can be deceptive where the structure and quality of growth are not considered.”
Osinbajo said for social sector investment, which is investing in the people, education, job creation, national school feeding scheme, conditional cash transfer and reflating economies of the states are indices that would boost the economy.
Some of these ideas, according to him, had already been put in place by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, including the bailout package for workers in the country and some others currently being worked out.
The vice president reiterated that education remained key for economic development, adding that “one of the most important interventions required in the education sector is capacity building to improve teacher quality.”
On the power sector, he noted further that “despite the challenges, there has been measurable improvement over the past three months.