The Permanent-Secretary, Ministry of Planning and Budget, Kano State, Mr Auwal Sanda, says the state will deploy multifaceted measures to reduce the burden of malnutrition.
Sanda said this on the sidelines of the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition (CS-SUNN) nutrition budget review meeting on Tuesday in Lagos.
The meeting centred on allocation, releases and utilisation of nutrition budget with key stakeholders from the legislature and nutrition line at the Federal Ministries, Kano and Lagos State.
Sanda said that the Kano State Government was addressing malnutrition as a health, social and economic issue through interventions from relevant ministries to enhance the nutritional status of its populace.
He said that the state government had been responsive for advocacy of civil society groups on the need to increase its annual budget allocation to nutrition based programmes.
According to him, the state is driving sensitisation to enhance nutritional food, and disabuse minds of the populace from beliefs that hinders them from feeding children with needed nutrients.
“In the North, beans are cultivated in large quantities but because people see it as a cash crop, they sell them instead of eating them.
“Also, the custom that if you give a child an egg, that child will steal must change. These beliefs prevent children from nutritious meals,” he said.
He said that the government through constant engagement and education had debunked such claims, and also empowered more women through the Ministry of Women Affairs.
Sanda said that the Ministry of Budget and Planning would continue to work with relevant stakeholders to ensure adequate allocation of funds for nutrition to reduce malnutrition in the state.
Also, Dr Mbang Kooffreh-Ada, acting Secretary, Board of Trustees, CS-SUNN, said that nutritional funding in Nigeria is suboptimal to the burden of the disease.
Kooffreh-Ada appealed that budget allocation should be increased and bureaucracy that constrains timely release of funds be removed to drive effective implementation of nutrition programmes.
“Data has shown that a child that’s severely malnourished has days or hours to die without prompt intervention,” she said.
Similarly, Mr Sunday Okoronkwo, Executive Secretary, CS-SUNN, commended the Federal, Kano and Lagos state governments for increasing domestic funds for nutrition and implementing some interventions as captured in the multisectoral plan of actions.
He, however, appealed that more should be done to improve nutrition funding to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the states, and country.
Okoronkwo said that CS-SUNN would continue to engage with the federal and state governments till every Nigerian was food and nutrition secured. (NAN)
