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NASCO Foods, the biscuit, cereal and snack unit of NASCO Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government of Nigeria for the implementation of the national school feeding programme of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Under the terms of the MoU, NASCO Foods will produce high-nutrient density biscuits to feed 30 million primary school children across the country.
 
President Buhari announced in December that his administration plans to spend N500 billion in 2016 to fund social welfare programmes, including school feeding, conditional cash transfers, and youth employment schemes.

The school feeding programme, which is Africa’s largest school-feeding programme, aims to provide a free meal every school day to 30 million primary school children in Nigeria below the age of 13.

NASCO Group, one of the largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies in the West Africa, manufactures and distributes a large collection of popular brands across the food and household sectors.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who spoke at the signing ceremony in Abuja over the weekend, said the MoU was necessary to advance the implementation of the programme.

The high nutrient density biscuits are one of the products of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos. The Institute believes the biscuits will meet at least one-third of the recommended dietary requirements of pupils.

The Director-General of FIIRO, Mrs. Gloria Elemo, said the mandate of the institute was to carry out research and development into food and agro-allied processing technologies.

"The biscuit is developed from indigenous crops which reflect the nation’s best in terms of foods security, safety and standard which will be commercially produced with this arrangement,” Mrs. Elemo said.

General Manager of NASCO Foods, Mr. Ibrahim Sani, thanked the ministry for the collaboration for the commercial production of the biscuits.

Earlier last month, the Federal Government signed an agreement with Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development (PCD) to facilitate the country’s school feeding programme.