BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
NIGERIA now has the second highest number of children suffering acute malnutrition in the world, figures released by the Federal Government on Tuesday have shown.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, disclosed on Tuesday that 2.5 million Nigerian children were currently suffering from acute malnutrition.
This figure, according to the United Nations statistics analysed by The Point, places Nigeria as the country with the second highest number of stunted children in the world, after Somalia.
The United Nations Data obtained from its Global Hunger Index report puts the number of malnourished children in Somalia at 54 per cent.
For Nigeria, the national prevalence rate of malnourishment is put at 32 per cent for children under five years old.
Agba, while speaking at the flag-off of the 2020 Nigeria nutrition week in Abuja on Monday, noted that despite concerted efforts by the government in recent years, particularly in the areas of child nutrition and breastfeeding, malnutrition and other public health issues had remained a challenge.
He said this challenge must be addressed through the implementation of innovative policies and strategies that are appropriately funded, data-driven, sustainable and optimised.
In addition, he said government must also continue to work collaboratively across all levels, and hand-in-hand with the private sector and development partners, in this regard.
He lamented that Nigeria’s food and nutrition situation and the attendant poor global image, in terms of economic and development milestones, were major concerns to the Federal Government.
This development, he said, had forced government to create a platform to mobilise nutrition stakeholders towards addressing the challenge of malnutrition, which had been termed “the silent killer”.
The platform is a week-long “Nutrition Campaign Week.”
Nigeria, he said, had shown a clear commitment to the eradication of malnutrition through the adoption and domestication of policies and costed strategic plans.
This, according to the minister, emphasises increased reliance on domestic funding; and a well-coordinated multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholders’ approach backed by sustained high-level political commitment.
Second only to Somalia, Nigeria has the world’s highest mortality rate for children under the age of five (12 per cent).
However, this is not a uniform number across the country’s large and diverse population, which illustrates the factor that inequality plays in the hunger crisis, and serves as a good reminder that there is no uniform approach to reducing food insecurity.
In Kebbi State, for instance, where 66 per cent of children are stunted, the mortality rate jumps to 25 per cent. In other states like Lagos and Bayelsa, mortality rate drops to just around three per cent.
