TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the National Nutrition Agency Dadan Hindayana said that the Indonesian Government has prepared a large quota for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to become partners of the Government in the free nutritious meal (MBG) program. "The quota is 28,000," said Dadan when contacted on Sunday, January 5, 2025.

Dadan has not explained in more detail about the agreement and the technical implementation of the cooperation later. He only revealed that currently there are around 13,000 people who have registered their businesses to become partners. The registration for this partnership is done online through the official website bgn.go.id.

The program initiated by President Prabowo Subianto will start on Monday, December 6, 2025. In the first three months, the Government will provide 3 million portions of free nutritious meals. "Later it will increase twice, in April it will increase by 6 million," said the National Nutrition Agency's System and Governance Working Group Team, Niken Gandini, in mid-October 2024.

Previously, Dadan said that the Free Nutritious Meals program requires a budget of Rp800 billion per day. This program will reach 82.9 million recipients and spend a budget of Rp400 trillion if fully implemented.

"If this program is running, the National Nutrition Agency will spend Rp1.2 trillion every day for future HR (human resources) investment. Around 75 percent of the Rp1.2 trillion is for the Free Nutritious Meals intervention, approximately Rp800 billion every day," said Dadan after the BNI Investor Daily Summit 2024 event in Jakarta, on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, as quoted by Antara.

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