Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo has stated that the national budgetary allocation for nutrition is focused on fortification, transportation of nutrition products and behavioural change in order to achieve the aim of the fight against Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the country.
Yemi Osinbajo further stated that the Federal Government is focused on a new multi-sectoral plan of action to tackle challenges in the nutrition sector to ensure that it achieves the desired positive impact.
The Vice President stated these while delivering a keynote address during a virtual conference on nutrition saying that such will be the primary focus by promoting exclusive breastfeeding and quality complementary feeding.
This according to the Vice President who is the Chairman of the National Nutrition Committee is in a bid to restructure responses to nutrition, a plan he said is awaiting approval from the National Council.
The Vice President then commended the Aisha Buhari Foundation for the contribution to the fight against SAM in the country saying that by what the Foundation is doing, the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari has demonstrated her role as a good mother of the nation.
The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to the revitalisation of PHCs across the country with the provision of nutrition services.
In her own address, founder of the Aisha Buhari Foundation and the First Lady of Nigeria, Hajiya Aisha Buhari stressed the importance of the fight against severe acute malnutrition in the country saying that that is the only way the future of the country will be secured.
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Represented by the Wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo at the Conference, the First Lady tasked all stakeholders in the nutrition sector to intensify efforts at ensuring that everything needed to win the fight is available.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe on his own, made a commitment to follow-up with the executive for the reinstatement of the RUTF provision in the annual budget which was removed.
Also, the federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning is committed to formulating a well-costed plan for nutrition in the national budget.
The host of the virtual conference on Nutrition, Dr Mrs Moji Makanjuola stressed the need for government and Nutrition stakeholders in the country to come to terms with the reality of the devastating effect of severe acute malnutrition and the need to stand up to fight it.
Moji Makanjuola who is the Coordinator of International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH) declared that all hands must be on deck until the last malnourished child in the country was adequately taken care of and was not allowed to die.
The theme of the Virtual conference jointly sponsored by Aisha Buhari Foundation, NHED, Nigeria Health Watch and CISLAC was, ‘Harnessing Innovative Financing Options for Nutrition–unravelling the bottlenecks’, and it was attended by over 400 participants from across the globe.
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