The Federal Government on Monday deployed relief materials to Lagos and Ogun states as well as Abuja as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, said trucks carrying the materials were deployed yesterday.
She said the trucks were expected to arrive before midnight yesterday.
The minister indicated that she had begun talks with governors to ensure the continuation of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
The minister spoke in Abuja during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
On how the relief materials would be distributed, Farouq said: “Mr President said we should deploy relief materials to ease the pains of residents of satellite and commuter towns and communities around Lagos and Abuja whose livelihoods will surely be affected by this measure.
“To achieve this, we must identify and reach the target of such communities and residents using available data at our disposal. This we have started doing.
“NEMA has deployed all the trucks; they are on-site and before the end of today (yesterday), these trucks carrying relief materials will be deployed in these affected states of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja.”
On how the school feeding programme would be implemented despite the closure of schools, she said: “In paragraph 50 of Mr. President’s speech, he directed that our ministry works with the relevant state governments in developing a strategy on how to sustain the school feeding programme.
“We will be doing this and I have already started contacting the governors on agreeing on the modalities to adopt. I have accordingly contacted the programme heads and this may have to go beyond the affected states because as we are aware, all schools are closed down and children are at home.
“So, we are looking at modalities to see how we will extend this directive beyond the states where the lockdown has affected.”
Farouq also said the three months moratorium for all Tradermoni, Marketmoni, and Farmermoni would be immediate.
“We have already carried out the directive and we have contacted the officials handling the programme and we have directed that they implement this immediately.
“In paragraph 54 of Mr President’s speech, he directed that the conditional cash transfers be given in advance of two months. This, we have also called the programme heads and we have directed that we start immediate payment of the cash transfer to the poorest and vulnerable households in our country.
“Let me reiterate here that because of COVID-19, the vulnerable groups have to be expanded because we have people who live on a daily wage and we are going to look at those groups of people to see how we can take the food relief intervention to these affected areas.”
