A Non Governmental Organisation in the country has called on the Niger State Government to act quickly on the increase rate of age under 5 death, saying the funds budgeted for nutrition in the state have not been released for two years.
Making this call on Thursday at a media parley in Minna, the Executive Secretary, Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, Beatrice Eluaka, said in 2017, about N90 million was budgeted for nutrition in 2017 but not released by the government.
Eluaka said while highlighting the nutrition situation in Niger State and government’s efforts in addressing the malnutrition menace in the state, that the burden of malnutrition in the state is so huge when compared with nutrition allocation and the attendant non-release of funding allocated for nutrition.
According to her: “The Niger State Government budgeted the sum of N89,218,166 for nutrition in 2017, but no releases were made from this allocation.
“This year (2018), the state government budgeted N137,746,250.00 for nutrition but still no releases have been made.
“We want to draw attention to the fact that the burden of malnutrition in the state is so huge when compared with nutrition allocation and the attendant non-releases of funding allocated for nutrition – a situation that makes it impossible to reverse the disturbing statistics on malnutrition in Niger State.”
Eluaka added that available data from the National Nutrition and Health Survey (NNHS 2014 and 2015), indicated a marginal rise in the state’s malnutrition burden, which continues to be a key contributor to infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, poor cognitive development and increased severity of diseases, adversely affecting under-5 children in the state.
Findings by our Correspondent have it that “the 2014 NNHS reported a stunting rate in Niger State of 35.4 per cent, while underweight and wasting rates were put at 17.5 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.
“In 2015, stunting rate in the state increased to 38%, wasting rate to 6.1% with underweight reducing slightly to 17.3%. While the latest Multiple Cluster Indicator Survey (MICS 2017) shows a slight decrease in the rate of stunting to 37.3%, wasting and underweight have increased to 24.3% and 8.8% respectively.”
The Executive Secretary of CS-SUNN further called on the Governor Abubakar Sani Bello-led administration to ensure timely release of funds allocated to nutrition as well as effective and efficient utilization of nutrition funds.
“We charge the state government to ensure releases from the N137, 746, 250 budgeted for nutrition this year,” Eluaka added.
Furthermore, she called on the state government to provide clarity in budgeting for nutrition to include preventive interventions such as promoting nutrition education to ensure optimal infant and young child feeding practices, staple food fortification and Maternal nutrition programmes.
Accordingly, she said: “These measures will prevent more children from becoming mal-nourished and ensure that cured mal-nourished children do not relapse upon discharge from the treatment centres, as is currently the case in many communities.”
She further tasked the Niger State Government to improve on the implementation of existing nutrition policies in the State.
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