Over 120 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday benefited from ‘My Food Bank’ (MFB) programme, an initiative to curb hunger, especially among ordinary Nigerians.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that women and children at the Karon-Majiji IDP Camp received donations of food-accessing smart cards from My Food Bank Nigeria team.
Mr Aliyu Maina, the President of Africa Food Bank Farm, initiators of My Food Bank Nigeria, who handed the cards to the beneficiaries, said that the gesture was to alleviate their plight, especially hunger being experienced by the IDPs.
“In line with our vision of creating avenues for millions of people to have access to affordable and free food in any part of the country, we decided to reach out to the IDPs as a priority.
“People are hungry in the country, and we have developed a system whereby they can be fed by other people who are willing to help the needy.
“The cards we are activating today are paid for by people of goodwill, who want every Nigerian to stay out of hunger.
“We want every Nigerian to have access to food irrespective of their locations and social standing, to eliminate hunger because when you end hunger, you have solved many other problems,’’ Maina said.
Mr Hilary Okolobia, the Technical Director (ICT) of MFB, who activated the smart cards, explained that a holder of the card could access free and cheap meal from ‘Food Managers’ or vendors captured under the programme.
“This smart card does not have chips like the ATM card, it is smart because it has a pin which can be accessed anywhere with the use of USSD code.
“The moment it is activated, it becomes an account with the name, location and data of the owner, and the owner or donors can deposit money in it.
“This makes for a smart and more transparent medium to send food to people in need across Nigeria because you don’t need the internet but just your phone to use it,” he said.
Okolobia said that there were donors from within and outside the country, who understood the food needs of the displaced and less privileged Nigerians.
He said that a holder of the card could access meal from the designated vendors for as cheap as N200, as long as there was money in the account.
He therefore appealed to Nigerians of goodwill both home and abroad to support the initiative to alleviate hunger in the land.
“A holder of this card just needs to enter a Food Manager shop in this camp and request for food.
“The moment you received alert on your phone, you have food in your account, and you visit any of our designated food managers around the camp to eat.
“The vendor will dial a USSD code to check your balance, and if you have money, you will be given food as cheap as N200 and deduct it from your account,” he explained.
Mrs Fatima Abubakar, a beneficiary and mother of 10, expressed appreciation to MFB Nigeria on behalf of other women.
Abubakar, who said she lost her husband to activities of the insurgency in the Northeast, said the gesture was a major respite to her and other IDPs.
She therefore urged government at all levels and philanthropists to identify with the MFB initiative to meet the food needs of IDPs across the country.
“I am from Gwoza with my 10 children, and food is a big problem for us here,” she said.
NAN reports that “My Food Bank” programme was launched in December 2018, with President Muhammadu Buhari pledging support for the project.
(NAN)
