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Osinbajo says Nigeria making significant progress in tackling malnutrition 

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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said Nigeria had continued a significant steady progress in tackling malnutrition.

The VP, who stated this while speaking at the 2020 Virtual Conference on Nutrition in Nigeria, claimed that the progress was achieved through the implementation of various intervention programmes and increased funding.

The conference, according to a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the conference was organised by the Aisha Buhari Foundation in collaboration with development partners.

According to Osinbajo, the progress so far made was made possible as a result of the Buhari-led administration’s efforts in collaboration with other stakeholders, noting that the Social Investment Programmes (SIP) has also contributed to the progress made.

He said: “Noticeably, there has been a decline in stunting and wasting; stunting, from about 44% in 2017 to about 37% in 2019 and wasting from 10.8% in 2017 to 7% in 2019, and an increase in exclusive breastfeeding amongst children under 6 months from about 24% in 2017 to 29% in 2019.”

The Vice President also said that the federal government has over the years demonstrated commitment towards addressing the problem through increase budgeting for nutrition activities and targeting it’s Social Investment Programmes towards tackling malnutrition.

According to him, an increased investment of N3.8 billion was made for the procurement of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF).

READ ALSO: Three children die daily of malnutrition in Borno – UNICEF

“The administration ensured progressive increases in budgetary allocations to nutrition activities in the country.

“There has been an increased investment of about N3.8 billion by Federal and State governments especially for the procurement of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUT)”, Osinbajo said.

He also listed the “revitalization of the Primary Health Care System with nutrition as the primary focus, the promotion of optimum breastfeeding and improved quality of complementary food”, adding that improved collaboration and innovative thinking would be required to scale interventions and effectively address the problem.

“Clearly, we need to increase domestic financing. And the only way to do so is to look more at what we can do at both the Federal and State levels. But more importantly, to direct funding to communities with the greatest needs.

“I think civil society advocacy before the National Assembly is crucial to drawing attention to what you consider as priority.

“There are always several competing needs for resources and sometimes your strong voices especially directed as the debates that are going on can make a real difference in what ends up in the budgets, not just in the federal but even in the state budgets,” he said.

The Vice President however noted that budget funds from both states and federal governments cannot meet all of the needs, adding that the pool of funds from the mandatory health insurance programme will be an important contributor to financing nutrition.

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