Nutrition is strategic for devt — Lagos Commissioner

The Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Samuel Egube, says that nutrition is at the heart of the government’s strategy for developing the capacity of its citizens.

Egube said this during an advocacy visit by the Civil Society-Scaling Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) team on Tuesday in Lagos.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CS-SUNN is a non-governmental coalition of organisations with a shared vision to transform Nigeria into a country where every citizen has food and is nutrition secured.

Egube said that nutrition was part of the state’s preventive mechanism for the sustainable healthcare system, adding that it had several interventions in nutrition areas, across various ministries, departments and agencies.

“We are intervening already to ensure that nutrition reaches pregnant women because if the unborn child is not well nourished from the womb, they come out incapacitated and can create a whole cycle of poverty,” he said.

According to him, the government is increasing investment in various primary healthcare centres to ensure accessible, affordable and quality healthcare delivery for its citizens.

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He added that the state just held the Lagos farmers market to ensure that fresh food direct from the farms were sold to the people to enhance their nourishment level.

Egube said that the state was working with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to develop special processing zones targeted at ensuring that food was cheaper, hygienic, accessible, and post-harvest wastage reduced.

The commissioner noted that the state committed N7 billion yearly to the State Health Insurance Scheme while urging the residents to participate more in the scheme toward ensuring its success.

Egube stressed that nutrition was a collective responsibility, thus called for more collaboration between government and nutrition stakeholders.

Earlier, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, Executive Secretary, CS-SUNN, commended the Lagos State government for being the first state to approve six-months maternity leave for women.

Eluaka also praised the state government for approving nutrition budget lines across 10 key line ministries in the state’s 2020 budget.

“It is not just enough to have a budget line. There is the need for the budget lines to have cash backing and to ensure timely releases to facilitate the full implementation of the State Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action for Nutrition,” Eluaka said.

Eluaka also called for improved and greater collaborations among the nutrition line ministries also for the approval of the State Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action for Nutrition currently before the State Executive Council.

NAN