Cross River sets aside N1.7Billion for Food Bank Commission

The Cross River Government has budgeted the sum of N1.7 Billion for the establishment of a food bank commission in the state.

Disclosing this while receiving a delegation from the HB Heritage Bank led by Mr. Godwin Ukwat, Coordinator of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme on a courtesy visit in his office in Calabar, Monday.

Ayade said that the Food Bank Commission of the state is structured in a manner that each Local Government will have a Director who will identify the key farmers, one for yams, beans and cassava among others

Governor Ayade called on the bank to guarantee the state on the 40 percent counterpart funding of the programme and also give the state the freedom to manage the programme in Cross River, adding that as a Senator, he provided food basket for the poor and the aged in his Senatorial district

He reasoned that the method of agriculture which Nigeria and Africa was still practicing is near stone age, stating that we have gotten to a time where agriculture is supposed to be driven by technology as it is done in developed countries where farming is in the hands of big farmers and infrastructure such as roads, water and power are provided.

Ayade said that it will be counterproductive to encourage people to return to agriculture under the present structure, and advocated the need to evolve a structure that will reflect our anthropological setting, reasoning that the present system which does not even provide for insurance for the farmers only help to decimate the people and reduce them to want.

 In his presentation, the HB Heritage Bank, head of Agric-Finance of the Bank, Mr. Gbenga Awe said that the home grown school feeding programme is one of the social safety net by the federal government to employ 300,000 youths in the country, disclosing that the programme is meant to feed pupils from primary one to six.

He disclosed that the programme which has a meal per a day is to encourage learning, asserting that it is usually difficult for a child to concentrate and learn with an empty stomach.

Awe further explained that the scheme will be funded  on the basis of 60 percent for the federal government and 40 percent for the state governments, and outlined benefits that will accrue to Cross River if it signed into the scheme to include internally Generated revenue for the state, bringing a large population of persons from the informal sector to the formal sector thereby expanding the state access to the tax base.

He also outlined the states which already signed on to the programme to include, Kaduna, Zamfara, Osun, Oyo, Jigawa, Benue and Enugu.