President Bola Tinubu has approved a new initiative to route 20% of palliatives, including food interventions, through religious organisations and traditional institutions in the country. Vice President Kashim Shettima, who announced this on Tuesday while speaking at a high-level dialogue on nutrition at the State House in Abuja, also unveiled an ambitious plan to improve nutrition across Nigeria with a rallying call to faith and traditional leaders to champion the effort in their communities. The one-day dialogue with the theme: “Faith leaders as catalysts for enhanced human capital through nutrition,” was organized by the National Council on Nutrition and the World Bank-assisted Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria [ANRiN] Project. Speaking about the approval given on the palliatives distribution, Shettima said: “The President has approved that 20% of the palliatives, in terms of food intervention, be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such interventions.” The Vice President was responding to concerns raised by the Imam of Bayero University, Kano (BUK) about the exclusion of traditional and religious leaders from the distribution of palliatives. Shettima also announced that 20% of the funds released for the School Feeding Programme will be channelled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to religious bodies.
The Vice President acknowledged the challenges of reaching thousands of Tsangaya schools and mission schools but expressed confidence that the initiative will be successful. He stressed: “We have a plethora, hundreds, thousands of Tsangaya schools, hundreds, thousands of mission schools for we need to capture. We are working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and these interventions will be anchored in the office of the Honorable Minister for Budget and Economic Planning.”
