Did MBG Create One Million Jobs?

VERDICT
CONFIDENCE
98%
Direct Answer
Yes, President Prabowo Subianto said the MBG program had created one million jobs as of February 2, 2026. The figure is a government estimate based on 22,000 kitchens with roughly 50 workers each, not an independently audited count.
What the Evidence Shows
Prabowo made this statement on February 2, 2026, at the National Coordination Meeting in Sentul, Bogor. Multiple independent outlets, including ANTARA, Tempo, and Tirto, all reported the same speech at the same venue. His math is simple: about 22,000 operating kitchens multiplied by roughly 50 workers each comes to around 1.1 million positions, which he rounded down to one million. The arithmetic holds up. What is less clear is what counts as a job. Later government reporting put direct kitchen workers at about 290,000. The broader one-million figure pulls in farmers, fishers, livestock producers, and small suppliers linked to the program. So the number is real, but it reflects a wide definition of economic participation rather than a strict headcount of new formal employees. The official Secretariat of State confirmed the statement, and several reputable Indonesian news outlets corroborate the venue and wording. That leaves very little room for dispute about what Prabowo actually said. We are 98% confident because the evidence is direct and consistent across primary and independent sources, with disagreement limited only to how the job figure is defined, not whether the statement was made.
Sources & Methodology
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