Nigeria needs $900 million to tackle the scourge of malnutrition which is ravaging the whole country

EVERY single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age to malnutrition. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world, according to Ngozi Onuora, nutrition specialist, United Nations Fund for Children, UNICEF, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Onuora stated this at a two-day Media Dialogue on Leveraging Resources for Child Malnutrition in Nigeria which held in Enugu between April 28 and 29.

According to Onuora, there are multiple dimensions of child malnutrition which can co-exist in individuals, households and populations including stunting, wasting, micronutrients deficiencies, overweight and obesity. These are all manifestation of under-nutrition. She said that the focus on stunting reduction is because it reflects chronic under-nutrition and shows that the individual suffers from multiple deprivations.

Supporting the view that undernutrition is a major challenge in Nigeria, Chris Osa Isokpunwu of the federal ministry of health, said that there are 2.5 million severe cases of malnutrition in the country.

According to him, $900 million is required to tackle malnutrition in the country but the national budget provided only N2.4 million in 2016, nothing in 2015 while in 2014, N30 million was provided but was not released. He added that the budget for nutrition was created for the first time in Nigeria in 2014, describing malnutrition as a silent killer which has to be stopped.

Statistics provided at the media dialogue by nutrition experts showed that malnutrition is everywhere in the country but is much worse in the North.

The total number of children affected by malnutrition in the South East in 2016 is 34,889 while 6,700 deaths were recorded. In the South South, 86,304 persons were affected while 16,700 death due to malnutrition were recorded. South West had 84,417 cases while 16,300 died; North West had 1,594,462 cases while 308,000 deaths were recorded; North Central, 43,635 cases with 8,400 deaths; North East had 695,998 while 134,000 deaths were recorded.

Malnutrition not only contributes to close to 50 percent of deaths in children under five, but also results in a massive cost for the nation. According to World bank, Nigeria loses over $1.5 billion in GDP annually to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

—  May 8, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT