By Emmanuel Elebeke

Stakeholders in the nutrition sector have highlighted the urgent need to address malnutrition and promote maternal and child health in Nigeria.

This was confirmed in a recent communique from Kano State made available to Vanguard.

The communique emphasized the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, recommending it for the first six months of life.

However, Nigeria currently falls short of the World Health Assembly’s target, with an exclusive breastfeeding rate of only 29%.

To combat malnutrition, Kano State has released 500 million naira for the procurement of nutrition commodities. The state government has also been commended for its efforts to improve nutrition, particularly for children under five.

Key recommendations from the communique include: – Sustained commitment to the Child Nutrition Fund; Establishing nutrition departments in all line ministries; Extending paid maternity leave to six months; Scaling up nutrition-specific interventions and multisectoral collaboration; Improving access to nutrition budget lines and leveraging the state social register for pregnant mothers; Regular forums for nutrition supporting partners to deliberate on best approaches; Training and retraining of Nutrition focal persons across MDAs and Establishing local government committees on food and nutrition across the 44 LGAs.

These measures, stakeholders said aim to improve nutrition outcomes, reduce malnutrition, and promote better health for children and mothers in Nigeria.

The communique was signed by Ajumawa, L.A, Chairman, Kano State Committee on Food and Nutrition/Permanent Secretary, Kano State Ministry of Planning and Budget, and Ridwan Awosanya, Programs’ Manager, Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN).