The rate of malnutrition in Oyo State is significantly high ― ANRiN Project Director

Project Director and team lead, Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN), in Oyo State, Bulus Sani Shabanda, has revealed real reasons for the choice of Oyo State to execute the project.

According to Shabanda, the ANRiN project’s overall programme objective is to increase access to and utilise of community-based Basic Package of Nutrition Service (BPNS) in the defined geography of ANRiN states according to established and agreed targets to reduce malnutrition.

Speaking on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement meeting held at Kakanfo Inn in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital recently, Shabanda noted, “The rate of malnutrition in Oyo State is significantly high and the rate of malnutrition is actually unevenly distributed across the country.

“However, in the southwest part of the country, Oyo State have one of the highest statistics. And that is one of the reasons the World Bank chose Oyo State as one of the states to implement this project in order to address issues of malnutrition which is leading to under-5 mortality, pregnant women dying and all that.

“The project come to address thus underlying issues, so across Nigeria, I can tell you we have a high rate of malnutrition. We have a lot of interventions that are going on to reduce the malnutrition rate in the country. This project specifically comes to address the high rate of malnutrition we have in Oyo State and of course, we are seeing the impact already.”

He further hinted that the project is being implemented across 12 states across the country, adding that the states are the highest contributors to malnutrition in Nigeria Oyo State happens to be one of them.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE