The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has said President Bola Tinubu is passionate about establishing a sustainable school feeding programme, expressing confidence that it would be firmly in place before the end of the administration.
She stated this on Tuesday while receiving a five-member delegation from the World Bank led by its Country Director for Nigeria, Dr Matthew Verghis, at the State House, Abuja.
According to a statement released by her Senior Special Assistant on Media, Busola Kukoyi, the meeting focused on strengthening collaboration on Early Childhood Development programmes in Nigeria.
Speaking during the engagement, the First Lady stressed the importance of investing in children from an early age to improve their growth and future prospects.
“Investing in early childhood development remains critical, not just to improve growth opportunities for children, but also to shape and sharpen their focus,” she said.
She noted that the Federal Government remained committed to initiatives that would improve the lives of Nigerians.
“The population size of Nigeria alone is our advantage because Nigeria is a great nation,” she said.
Senator Tinubu said the administration had adopted a multi-sectoral approach to development, citing interventions in health, education, environmental sanitation and nutrition.
“You talked on multi-sectoral approach; that is what we have been doing. I will say that Mr President has gotten himself a wonderful team; they got it.
“When it comes to tuberculosis, we went out for sensitisation and promoted the campaign. And now, talking about our children, those are the joy of our nation; if we have to do a lot,” she said.
The First Lady also pledged to continue working with the wives of state governors to implement programmes aimed at improving children’s welfare across the country.
“We are looking forward to school feeding. I can assure that before we finish our tenure, it would have been properly established because even Mr President is very passionate about this, even when he was the Governor in Lagos State,” she said.
Earlier, Verghis called for stronger collaboration with Nigerian leaders to advance Early Childhood Development, describing it as one of the country’s most important long-term investments.
“Every five or six years, we reframe our programmes in Nigeria. Nigeria is, unsurprisingly, one of the World Bank’s largest partners and our office here is one of the largest in the world.
“In the framework, investing in people is an important focus of the World Bank. We are partners in education and nutrition programmes. We have programmes on skills. We recognise the importance of investing in people,” he said.
He said investments in children from pregnancy to age five improve cognitive development, reduce healthcare costs and help break cycles of poverty.
Verghis also urged the First Lady to use her platform to promote a multi-sectoral approach to Early Childhood Development programmes.
“Nigeria is a very important partner for the World Bank and her success is crucial for the World Bank to achieve its target.
“We have targets for healthcare delivery, broadband access and energy access. For these various things, if Nigeria does not succeed, the World Bank is not succeeding,” he said.
The World Bank delegation said its five-year country partnership framework would focus on implementing programmes that improve nutrition, education, sanitation and other key areas affecting child development, adding that the First Lady’s leadership would be critical to the initiative’s success.
The PUNCH