Nutrition experts have called on the Nasarawa State Government to increase funding for nutrition programmes and ensure timely release of allocated funds to tackle the growing burden of child malnutrition in the state.
Kunle Ishola, Senior Programme Officer of the Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), disclosed this to journalists during a media engagement in Lafia, organised under the Partnership for Improving Nigerian Nutrition Systems (PINE 3.0) project.
Ishola said 35 per cent of children in Nasarawa State were stunted, while about 9.6 per cent suffered from wasting, according to the 2023-2024 National Demographic and Health Survey.
He warned that stunting could have serious long-term effects on children’s physical growth and brain development, with negative consequences for the state’s future workforce and economic productivity.
While acknowledging the progress made by the state government over the past decade, including the approval of the State Policy on Food and Nutrition and a five-year costed multi-sectoral plan, he identified inadequate funding and delayed budgetary releases as major obstacles to effective implementation of nutrition programmes.
He noted that although desk officers in relevant ministries, departments and agencies had received training on nutrition interventions, some top-level government officials still lacked adequate understanding of the difference between general food security programmes and specific nutrition financing.
According to him, ‘funds allocated to nutrition programmes were often released towards the end of the fiscal year, sometimes as late as November, resulting in rushed implementation and inefficient utilisation of resources’.
Ishola added that existing budgetary provisions were inadequate to meet the needs of the growing number of children requiring treatment for severe and moderate acute malnutrition.
He therefore urged the government to ensure that annual nutrition budgets reflected the prevailing malnutrition burden and that funds were released quarterly to guarantee the continuous implementation of interventions.
The CS-SUNN official also urged the media to intensify advocacy by taking nutrition-related discussions beyond government offices to policymakers, local government authorities and grassroots communities.
Similarly, Jonah Aboki, the Nasarawa State Coordinator of CS-SUNN, identified weaknesses in the distribution of health commodities and delays in budgetary releases as major challenges affecting the fight against malnutrition.
Aboki disclosed that the state government had released N125 million as matching grants for the procurement of essential nutrition commodities.
However, he expressed concern that the supplies, which reportedly arrived in the state more than a month ago, had yet to be distributed to health facilities and communities where malnourished children urgently needed them.
He warned that the delay was exposing vulnerable children to further risks despite the availability of the procured commodities.
Aboki consequently called on the Nasarawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency to urgently mobilise logistics for the distribution of the supplies, particularly to high-burden areas such as Awe and Nasarawa Local Government Areas.
He stressed that prompt distribution of the commodities would enable vulnerable children to benefit from the intervention and strengthen ongoing efforts to reduce malnutrition across the state.