Philip Clement, Abuja
Experts across the country have submitted that without adequate funding and quality leadership, Nigeria may not be able to tackle malnutrition effectively.
They made the submissions at a virtual conference to mark the 2020 nutrition week organized by the ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning with the theme “Nutrition as a catalyst for economic development”.
Making his contribution to the subject matter, the director, Corporate Affairs and agric business initiatives at GB Foods Africa, Dr. Teddy Ngu stated that Nigeria does not have any option rather than invest heavily on nutrition.
According to him, investing in nutrition is the only guarantee to economic prosperity especially Gross Domestic Product growth.
He said: “It is only when we invest heavily in nutrition that we will have a healthy population that can be productive and improve our GDP. Many people say we have food in Nigeria and we produce alot, but question is not the food but how qualitative the food is.
“As such, advocacy and concerted effort is required from the private sector that is geared towards developing a country that ca tackle malnutrition effectively.
“For us at GB foods, we produce cubes, Gino tomatoes and other spices with high quality nutrients so it could help build string immune systems.
“With collaborations with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, we also strive for production of quality food products and also advocacy for more funding into the food value chain,”
On what the Nigerian Governors Forum are doing in tackling nutrition at states level, Dr. Ahmed Abdulwahab said the same approach that was taken to defeat polio is the same being deployed in curtailing malnutrition.
According to Abdulwahab, the NGF in collaboration with the ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on how to come up with a rating system to put governors on their feet in that particular area.
He added that the NGF decided to “Unbundled statistics from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and tackle the issues Independently to see where government at state level is lacking and where funding is needed to tackle the problem,”
He further stated that the NGF have taken the issue of health financing seriously which is why 34 states of the Federation currently have subscribed and passed laws covering health insurance.
Also Speaking, Senior programme officer for global development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Dr. Victor Ajieroh said Covid 19 has brought policy and programme disruptions virtually in all sectors, which is why sound leadership is needed to tackle malnutrition in the country.
“When Covid came, it was a health challenge which later turned to an Economic challenge. Generally, if we say we are to mobilize resources, we will need sound leadership that will channel such resources to the right sources.
“Also, revitalizing the primary Healthcare systems is important as well as all strategic partnership between government and the private sector is vital in ensuring that malnutrition is tackled,” he explained.
Already, Nigeria has become the world’s number one contributor to deaths of children under the age of five, according to a report released by UNICEF, two months ago
The development which comes two years earlier than estimated by the World Bank, paints a worrying picture for child mortality and survival in the country, further exposing a lack of plan and ambition in tackling diseases causing the deaths of children, which are usually curable.
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In 2018, the World Bank had said Nigeria would take over from India as the world capital for deaths of children under the age of five by 2021.
According to World Bank figures, India recorded an estimated 989,000 under-five deaths in 2017 compared to 714,000 deaths by Nigeria in the same year.
As such, experts believe that if the perennial problem of malnutrition is tackled in Nigeria, it will go a long way in improving it’s ranking in many areas and also improve economic viability.
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