The Directorate of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Delta State has trained some of its core officers and others in Asaba, the state capital.
The training was aimed at actualising accurate and effective enumeration of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in the state.
Speaking to journalists in his office in Asaba, the State Director of NOA, Mr. Christopher Anyabuine, stated that the office was conducting a stepdown training to enhance the capacities of its officers and those of the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Brigade, on how to ensure effective implementation of the programme, and carry out awareness campaigns to solicit collaboration of all stakeholders to making the exercise a success.
Anyabuine, who charged participants at the training to be diligent in carrying out the exercise, disclosed that the NHGSFP was one of the National Social Investment programmes (NSIP) clusters, designed to provide one free nutritious meal to pupils in public primary schools across the country, but being implemented by state governments and funded by the Federal Government.
He said that part of the collaboration of NOA with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD) was creating awareness for the upcoming enumeration exercise for pupils who were beneficiaries of the NHGSFP in Delta State.
The NOA state director revealed that the aim was to create a comprehensive and verifiable database of the beneficiaries of the programme which would aid planning, monitoring, evaluation and future improvement of the programme.
According to Anyabuine, “the exercise will help to generate data of all beneficiaries, namely the pupils, cooks and aggregators, which is expected to clear any doubts on who the beneficiaries truly are.”
“Specifically, the NHGSFP is designed to raise school enrolment of pupils in participating schools and also to raise the nutrition and health status of the pupils through the one meal a day in schools, among others,” he added.