The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has said investment in nutrition prevents undernutrition, builds human capital, boosts shared prosperity and improves health outcomes.
Udoma disclosed this on Monday when he flagged off the 2018 Nutrition Week aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers posed by malnutrition and serve as a platform for mobilizing stakeholders towards addressing the scourge in the country.
Udoma who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Olajide S. Odewale FCA, expressed concern over the increasing rate of malnutrition calling for concerted efforts to address it.
He explained that the state of Nigeria’s food and nutrition is of utmost interest to the Government at all levels because if the situation is not attended to, malnutrition which is sometimes referred to as “the Silent Killer”, could lead to the death of young children.
Experts, he pointed out, say an estimated 2.5 million children under the age of five years might be in danger of being afflicted by severe acute malnutrition in Nigeria, a development he noted, is quite worrisome and calls for emergency measures to arrest the trend.
He said this year’s theme: “Nutrition: An Emergency”, was chosen to draw attention to the urgent measures that need to be taken by all relevant stakeholders in combating malnutrition. “It is important to combat Malnutrition because as I indicated earlier, it can cause death in young children, particularly those under five years of age,” he added.
According to him, even those who survive could end up with lower Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and impaired cognitive ability with resultant adverse effects on their performance in school and productivity in later life.
The annual observation of the Nutrition Week, he noted, has been helping to create awareness regarding the importance of food and nutrition on child survival and its impact on development, productivity, economic growth, and national development.
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