Osinbajo: We Are Working to Address
Malnutrition
The Buhari administration is making progress tackling the
problem of malnutrition in the country through the implementation
of various intervention programmes, and increased funding,
according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
The Vice President disclosed this on Tuesday at the 2020 Virtual
Conference on Nutrition in Nigeria, organized by the Aisha Buhari
Foundation in collaboration with development partners.
Speaking on the progress made by the Federal Government, the
Vice President said though Nigeria has distinct factors that has
exacerbated the situation, the Federal Government has in the past
few 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, “…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 (RUTF).
He also listed, “…the revitalization of the Primary Health Care
System with nutrition as the primary focus, the promotion of
optimum breast feeding and improved quality of complementary
food.”
Continuing, Prof. Osinbajo said tremendous progress have been
recorded as a result of the administration’s efforts in
collaboration with other stakeholders..
“Noticeably, there have 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
breast feeding amongst children under 6 months from about 24% in
2017 to 29% in 2019.
The VP added that the Social Investment Programmes (SIPs has
also been helpful), “particularly the Home-Ground School Feeding
Programme for public schools currently feeds over 9 million
children across 34 States and the FCT, serving one nutritious meal
every day; and our Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme that has
provided cash transfers to about 1.2 million beneficiaries so far,
to boost income.”
Speaking on how government in collaboration with stakeholders
can sustain the gains, the Vice President said 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.”
Continuing, the Vice President said “budget funds from both
states and federal governments cannot meet all of the needs. We
believe that ultimately, the pool of funds from the mandatory
health insurance programme will be an important contributor to
financing nutrition.
“We need to aggregate a pool of fund outside the budget fund
which is why our proposal for mandatory health insurance is one
that we consider very important not just for health care but also
for the nutrition interventions that we have proposed.
The Vice President however noted that raising funds alone might
not address the issue, stressing that “the efficient and
transparent deployment of resources and coordinating the
contributions of our local and international partners” was
important for better results to be achieved.
In her address at the event, the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha
Buhari, represented by the Wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo
Osinbajo, said the conversation about ending malnutrition in
Nigeria should be embraced by all and sundry given the effect of
the problem on society.
According to her, “the conversation about stopping malnutrition
in Nigeria must continue. We will only stop when we have created
systems that can guarantee the survival of our children, we will
only stop when governments at the various levels back up their
commitments to tackling the problem, and when the civil society
realizes its role and commitment to this cause.”
Other participants at the conference include Governor Mohammad
Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Minister of Health, Prof. Osagie
Ehanire; Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Mr
Clement Agba; the representative of the Minister of Finance,
amongst others.
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media &
Publicity
Office of the Vice President