It also urged beneficiaries to remain calm and at alert for the final implementation of the payment procedures.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development says the list of all participating vendors in the modified School Feeding Programme will be submitted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Sadiya Farouq, who said this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 daily news briefing on Friday in Abuja, noted that it was for the purpose of transparency and accountability.

She said the modified school feeding programme was being funded by the Federal Government, implemented by states and facilitated by the ministry.

The minister said it was targeted at heads of households, guardians and caregivers of the pupils, already benefiting from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

She noted that the vendors had been on the programme since inception and that they were not new.

She said that the ministry had also invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to help with monitoring of events.

Farouq, speaking on the recently-launched NHGSFP Intervention in the FCT, acknowledged the role of the United Nations World Food Programme in Nigeria in providing technical support.

“We are not spending N679 million per day as reported by the media. That figure is inaccurate.

“The take-home rations are worth N4,200 per household, and are planned as a monthly COVID-19 intervention, for 3.1 million households in the participating states.

“To reach the households, we are using the various school registers, which contain addresses of all the pupils, we are also using SUBEB databases.

“Also, since schools are community-based, it is easy for children to be identified/verified in the various communities,” she said.