By Salisu Sani-Idris
Vice-President Kashim Shettima says the Federal Government plans to create nutrition departments in designated federal ministries and improve funding of nutrition activities.
Shettima said this on Tuesday during an interaction with members of the Nutrition Core Working Committee in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the committee were in the Presidential Villa to brief Shettima on the critical challenges and potential solutions for scaling up nutrition in Nigeria.
The Vice-President said measures would be adopted to frontally address some of the issues raised by the committee, particularly the establishment of nutrition departments in designated ministries.
He said the government would prioritise advocacy campaigns on nutrition and funding of nutrition-related activities.
He said the ministries of Water Resources and Sanitation; Science and Technology; Budget and Economic Planning; Information and National Orientation and others would be encouraged to expedite action in the creation of nutrition departments in their domains.
Shettima assured the committee that, like he had done with other interventions supervised by his office, nutrition would be given priority attention.
This, according to him, includes the construction of a dashboard in his office to monitor and track the activities of stakeholders in the nutrition space.
The Vice-President, who noted that financing was key in addressing nutrition and related issues, urged the committee to aim higher and set bigger targets.
According to him, all stakeholders must be collectively engaged and involved in the advocacy campaign on nutrition in Nigeria.
“We have to come up with ingenious ways of improving advocacy; hence, every stakeholder must be involved, including the private sector.”
Shettima also urged State Governments to key into the initiative, noting that improvement in the commitment shown by sub-nationals would be required to attract improved private sector support to finance nutrition interventions.
Earlier, the Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, Uju Rochas-Anwukah thanked the Vice-President for being a voice and champion for nutrition and related activities in the country.
She emphasised the need for nutrition and related activities to be taken to the grassroots.
Rochas-Anwukah explained that the action plan developed by the committee was anchored on decentralised coordination; accountability; financing; nutrition prioritisation and profile raising and scaling up of nutrition interventions.
Also, the Senior Health Advisor, Nigerian Governors Forum Secretariat, Dr Ahmad Abdulwahab commended the leadership and commitment of the Vice-President in driving nutrition and related interventions in the country.
He also applauded the Vice-President for galvanising the participation of sub-nationals.
Abdulwahab said that, in view of the challenges in scaling up interventions, the committee was recommending the implementation of the Strategic Roadmap for Transformative Nutrition and Food Security in Nigeria.