The president of the Food and Nutrition Committee of the House of Representatives, Hon Chike Okafor, raised Wednesday's concern that malnutrition in Nigeria is costing the country around $ 1.5 billion annually.
This occurred as a special senior assistant of the President of Public Health, Mrs. Uju Anwukah, revealed that Nigeria currently occupies the second place worldwide and first in Africa in the malnutrition index.
The two officials made the revelations in Abuja during the current National Summit on nutrition and food security organized by the Food and Nutrition Committee of the House of Representatives.
Speaking in the event, Hon Okafor said the summit was convened to offer solutions to the growing concern about the impact of malnutrition and inappropriate access to food in the Nigerians.
He pointed out that beyond health consequences, such as delay in delay, low birth weight and anemia between children, adolescents and women, malnutrition has serious economic implications.
According to him, “the cost of inaction in these parameters in Nigeria's economy is added to approximately 12.2% of the country's gross national income, around $ 56 billion, based on data from Nutrition International and the World Bank.”
He added that food insecurity has worsened for subsequent harvest losses, that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates at $ 2 billion annually. He said: “This colossal loss alone is more than the nutritional budget of the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Education and Women's Affairs.”
When describing the situation as unacceptable and unsustainable, especially in the current economic climate, Okafor said that his committee is working with the interested parties in the 36 states of Nigeria to change the narrative.
“In the first place, we are undertaking strategic capacities development sessions to better understand the root and dynamics of current nutrition and food security challenges in Nigeria. A wise man once said that once he is not informed, he is deformed,” he said.
He explained that the waiting committee institutionalizes these sessions in association with the National Institute of Democratic and Legislative Studies, with the support of development partners.
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“This will put us in a better pedestal to provide strategic supervision to all nutritional interventions and related to food and implementing partners, including, among others, the UN family, the World Bank, international and national NGOs, and, of course, the government at the federal, state and local level. In doing so, we will not only have more money for nutrition, but also more nutritional for money available,” he said.
Also speaking, the special assistant of the President of Public Health, Mrs. Uju Anwukah, said that Nigeria currently occupies the second place worldwide and first in Africa on the malnutrition scale.
Mrs. Anwukah, who talked about the issue “strengthen the coordination of nutrition in Nigeria through the N-774 initiative,” said the federal government is taking urgent measures to address the alarming trend.
According to her, the country enrolled in the N-774 initiative as a means to address malnutrition from the base level.
He explained that the initiative has already been supported by the National Food Security Council and the Nigerian governors forum for complete implementation.
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