NHGSFP school meal fingerprint biometrics

Nigeria's federal government has started to collect the fingerprints of 642,000 primary school pupils as part of the roll-out of its national National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). 

NHGSFP aims to provide school meals to students and accelerate school enrollment and retention, while boosting local food production and economies. 

As noted by BiometricUpdate, it is unclear why fingerprinting is strictly necessary, especially for children under 5 years old, other than to verify pupils' identities. 

Questions are also being asked why the collection of biometric data started in Borno State, which has been plagued by Boko Haram violence.