Nigeria is currently
under-funding its fight against malnutrition as the nation needs $912 million to
tackle the scourge, especially of child malnutrition which is presently pillaging
the country, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Revealing this to NaijaAgroNet at a two-day Media
Dialogue on “Leveraging Resources for Child Malnutrition in Nigeria” held weekend
in Enugu, South-East Nigeria, Director of Nutrition at the Federal Ministry of
Health, Abuja, Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu, described the situation as a major
challenge in the country fight against child malnutrition.
Isokpunwu, who delivered
paper on “Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria: What Will It Cost?” lamented that
there are currently about 2.5 million severely malnourished children in Nigeria.
The medical expert
quoted Federal Ministry of Health figures as showing that not less than $912
million is required to tackle child malnutrition in the country over the next
five years if the problem is not to get worse.
He pointed out that the
national budget provided only N2.4 million for child nutrition in 2016, while
nothing was provided in the 2015 budget and N30 million was provided in 2014
but was not released.
Also, he noted that the
budget for child nutrition was created for the first time in Nigeria in 2014,
describing child malnutrition as “a silent killer which has to be stopped” in
view of its devastating consequences.
In her paper entitled
“Child Nutrition Situation in South-East and South-South Zones of Nigeria”,
Ngozi Onuora, Nutrition Specialist at the Port Harcourt office of the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), decried that every single day, Nigeria loses
about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age as a result
of malnutrition.
According to her, this
makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal
mortality rate in the world.
Onuora equally said,
there are multiple dimensions of child malnutrition which could co-exist in
individuals, households and populations, including stunting, wasting,
micronutrients deficiencies, overweight and obesity. “These are all manifestation
of under-nutrition,” she said.
NaijaAgroNet gathered from statistics
provided at the Media Dialogue by nutrition experts that malnutrition, though a
national problem is much worse in the North.
As said by the experts
at the dialogue held on Thursday and Friday, April 28 and 29, 2017, in Enugu, the statistics showed that the total number of
children affected by malnutrition in the South-East in 2016 was 34,889 while
6,700 deaths were recorded.
Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that in the South-South, 86,304 children were
affected, out of which 16,700 died, while the South-West had 84,417 cases and
16,300 deaths; North-West 1,594,462 cases and 308,000 deaths; North-Central
43,635 cases with 8,400 deaths; and North-East 695,998 cases and 134,000
deaths.
Malnutrition, experts say, not only
contributes to close to 50 per cent of deaths in children under five, but also
results in a massive cost for the nation.
The Media Dialogue
attracted print, electronic and online journalists from Enugu, Lagos and Abuja.
Moderated by Geoffrey Njoku, UNICEF Communication Specialist, and Mrs. Ibiba H.
Bello, Head, Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information,
Abuja, the event featured a broad spectrum of experts who explored various
relevant themes. They included Dr. Bamidele Omotola, Nutrition Specialist at
UNICEF Abuja; Dr. Ken Ozoemena, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Enugu Office;
and Onche Odeh, a Communication Consultant among others.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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