Uju Anwukah, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, on Wednesday said Nigeria currently ranks second on the global malnutrition index, making her the first in Africa.
The presidential aide’s remark was echoed by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Food and Nutrition, Mr Chike Okafor, who said malnutrition in Nigeria is costing the country about $1.5bn annually.
Anwukah spoke on strengthening nutrition coordination in Nigeria through the N-774 initiative at the ongoing national summit on nutrition and food security organised by the House Committee on Food and Nutrition.
She disclosed that Nigeria signed up for the N-774 initiative as a way of addressing malnutrition from the grassroots level, stressing that the initiative has been endorsed by the National Council on Food Security as well as the Nigerian Governors Forum.
Okafor revealed that the cost of inaction on these parameters on Nigeria’s economy is aggregated to about 12.2% of the country’s Gross National Income, about $56bn, based on data from Nutrition International and the World Bank.
“Food insecurity has been aggravated by post-harvest loss, estimated at $2bn by the Food and Agriculture Organisation yearly.
“This colossal loss alone is more than the nutrition budget of the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Education and Women Affairs put together.
“This continued loss is not only unacceptable, but unsustainable given the austere times in which we currently live.
“On the above premise, my committee is working with those in the 36 states of the federation to do things differently.
“First of all, we are undertaking strategic capacity-building sessions to have a better understanding of the root and dynamics of current nutrition and food security challenges in Nigeria. A wise man once said that once you are not informed, you are deformed.
“We are hoping that the capacity-building sessions are institutionalised in partnership with the National Institute of Democratic and Legislative Studies, with support from our ever-helpful development partners.
“This will put us in a better position to provide strategic oversight to all nutrition and food-related interventions and implementing partners, including but not limited to the United Nations family, the World Bank, International and National non-governmental organisations and of course, the government at Federal, State and Local Government levels.
“By so doing, we will not only have more money for nutrition, but also more nutrition for the available money,” he said.
