Fg Proposes N150 Meal Subsidy For Students

The Federal Government has proposed increment in the meal subsidy for students in Federal Government Colleges from N50 to N150 per meal, per student.


This translates to N450 per day for every student, if the proposal is eventually approved.

Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday when the Senate Committee on Education visited the ministry in line with its oversight function.

The Education Minister, told the Senate Committee on Education
led by its chairman, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, that there was a drastic reduction in the meal subsidy and overhead cost of Unity Colleges in the 2012 budget.

Professor Rufa’i, while noting that this would create operational challenges in the feeding of the students, stated that some of the schools would be adversely affected.

For instance, she revealed that in 2011, allocation to Federal Government College, Buni-Yadi, as subsidy and overhead cost was N91,578,418, which was drastically reduced to N30,440,260 in the 2012 budget.

Other schools that would be adversely affected by the reduction in the allocation include Federal Government Colleges in Gusau, Wukari, Okigwe, Sokoto, Bauchi, Enugu, Ikot-Obio-Itong, Langtang and Jalingo.

Professor Rufa’i also lamented that the removal of subsidy on diesel and petrol and implementation of the Universal Basic Education Commission Act, which grants free education up to JSS 3, had made the running cost of the schools prohibitive.