The Senior Particular Assistant to the President on Public Effectively being, Uju Anwukah, offered that Nigeria now ranks second worldwide on the global malnutrition index, and first in Africa, underscoring the severity of undernutrition among its population.
The Chairman of the Home Committee on Food and Nutrition, Chike Okafor, estimates that malnutrition costs Nigeria about US$1.5 billion each 12 months in healthcare charges and misplaced productiveness. He additional notes that inaction on child stunting, low initiating weight, and anaemia drains roughly 12.2% of the nation’s Sinful National Earnings, approximately US$56 billion.
To kind out these challenges, Nigeria has signed up for the N-774 initiative, a package of nutrition interventions advised by the National Council on Food Security and the Nigerian Governors Forum. This program focuses on strengthening coordination at the narrate and native phases to address malnutrition from the flooring up.
Okafor highlighted that annual post-harvest losses, estimated at US$2 billion by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, exceed the blended nutrition budgets of the federal Ministries of Agriculture, Effectively being, Education, and Females Affairs. Lowering these losses is viewed as severe to bettering food security and nutrition outcomes.
The summit on nutrition and food security contains strategic means-constructing sessions, deliberate in partnership with the National Institute for Democratic and Legislative Be taught and pattern companions, to equip lawmakers and implementers with the talents basic for effective oversight of nutrition programs accurate through all phases of authorities.
