The National Population Commission (NPC) has expressed worry over the growing mortality rate of children under five years in the country, saying relevant stakeholders must rise to address the trend.
The Federal Commissioner of NPC in charge of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodeji Ajayi, stated this in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital at the Virtual and Verbal launch of the National Population Commission, (NPC) 2019 Verbal and Social Autopsy, (VASA) study report.
Represented by the Ekiti State Director of NPC, Mr Adeyanju Samuel Ayomola, the federal Commissioner said the report, generated in collaboration with the federal ministries of Health and Women Affairs, Bureau of Statistics, the academia, USAID among others, indicated that a lot more still needed to be done.
According to him, the exercise was in fulfilment of the constitutional mandate of the commission’s mandate of collecting data for planning purposes, “so as to assist policymakers plan and formulate policies for the health sector in relation to infant and child mortality in Nigeria.”
He said the verbal and social autopsy survey was a study that sought to ascertain the causes and determinants of under-five mortality in Nigeria between 2013 to 2018.
He revealed that during the exercise, a total of 3,215 under-5 mortality cases were selected, out of which 974, making 31 per cent are neonates while 2,241, making 69 per cent are children spread across the country.
He noted that the regional spread of the deaths during the period under review was 614, (20 per cent) of the total deaths were in the Southern part of the country, while 2,601, (80 per cent) occurred in the North.
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Ajayi said: ”You will agree with me that the situation we find ourselves today as a nation, especially with the content of the report, is one that calls for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to rise up into action to provide the enabling environment for our young ones to survive and grow into adulthood.
”The menace of under-five mortality cannot be wished away, indeed there has to be purposeful interventions and programmes from all concerned to reduce the trend in Nigeria.
” The importance of quality healthcare delivery in the economic, social and political development of the country cannot be over-emphasised, as good health has a great impact on the quality of the human resources.
” This has become important because if parents will have the peace of mind knowing that their wards are of sound health in return, they will be more productive.”
He appealed to Nigerians, particularly stakeholders in the health sector to avail themselves of the huge data generated in the planning, execution and evaluation health programmes for infants and children in the country.
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