As part of efforts to improve the School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) through the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos, and NASCO Foods Limited, Jos, Plateau State, have partnered for commercial production of High Nutrient Density (HND) Biscuit.
The HND Biscuit was developed by FMST through FIIRO for the School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government.The HND biscuit was developed to meet one-third Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) requirements of school age children to be produced on commercial basis by NASCO Foods Limited.
To this effect, a team of highly experienced technical staff of NASCO Foods visited FIIRO on Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at the instance of the Hon. Minister, FMST, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, for further discussion on the collaborative effort on the National School Feeding Programme.
According to Elemo who is the C.E.O of FIIRO, the collaboration is going to be win- win for all the parties involved and the benefit is enormous from the angle of utilization of indigenous raw materials in the formulation of the biscuits; conservation of foreign exchange; creation of jobs and improvement in enrolments of school children as well as enhancement of mental capacity of the children.
At the end of the technical session, timelines were drawn for some of the major activities including MoU signing (Wednesday, January 20, 2016); Commencement of pilot trial runs on NASCO Biscuit production lines (Wednesday, January 27, 2016); Stakeholders’/Consultative Forum (Thursday, February 25, 2016) and Product Launch on Thursday, April 28, 2016
