The Senate has urged that the federal government implement a food stamp system to mitigate the effects of hunger and the country’s food crisis.
Senate also pleads with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to collaborate with development partners and other key stakeholders, particularly the Lagos Food Bank Initiative, which established the Temporary Food Assistance Programme a few years ago.
Food stamps are a supplemental nutrition support programme that helps low- and no-income persons maintain proper nutrition and health by providing food purchase assistance.
The Red Chamber further said that the implementation of the project had become obligatory “with a view to working out practicable templates and implementable modalities for the actualisation of the programme.”
These resolutions were introduced in response to a motion sponsored by Senate Chief Whip Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), Senator Saliu Mustapha (APC, Kwara Central), and the majority of others during plenary.
Senator Ndume stated during the launch of the October 2023 Cadre Harmonisé Analysis on food insecurity that Nigeria is estimated to have around 26.5 million people suffering from severe food insecurity by 2024.
He said:
“The reason for the above projection is not far-fetched, as several indicators, which include but not limited to the ongoing conflicts across the country, climate change impacts, escalating inflation as witnessed in recent time, and rising costs of both food and essential non-food commodities, due to fall in value of Naira in exchange market.”
cc: Punch Ng
