Nigerian government says it is about to train 150,000 local cooks across the nation in a bid to prepare them for the school feeding initiative.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, at the orientation programme organised for facilitators of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP.
The programme was organised by the National Social Investments under the platform of the NHGSFP, which is set to train local cooks to meet the standard of the school feeding scheme.
Dr. Umar Bindir, National Coordinator of NSIP, who represented Farouq said the scheme would focus on fully implementing the national home school feeding.
“This programme concentrates on the institutionalisation and the full implementation of the national home school programme, which is one of the prime clusters of the National Social Investment Programme.
”We started this programme in 2016 and we are feeding nearly 10 million children nationwide in all the states of the federation.
“This feeding process includes first, empowering women within the communities where the schools are located to cook the food for the children.
“This is a nationwide strategy, we are going to train cooks in the country and we have 100 to 150, 000 of them,” Farouq explained.
The minister said the training was organised to ensure the cooks are trained in cooking methods, appearance and behaviour.
“The training will focus on the food safety, hygienic working environment, food procurement, food standardisation as well as financial literacy,” Faruq also said.
Hospitality Consultant with the Institute for Tourism Professional of Nigeria, Flora Goka, speaking at the event, said the scheme was President Buhari’s way of taking the country out of poverty through social investments programmes.