Get Guardian on GoogleThe Federal Government has intensified efforts to tackle child malnutrition across the country, unveiling plans to strengthen nutrition delivery in all 774 local government areas (LGAs) in the country.
The government said the move is aimed at translating years of policy commitments into measurable improvements in the nutritional health of Nigerian women and children, particularly those in underserved communities.
Consequently, the government has called on the National Assembly to fast-track the passage of the proposed National Nutrition Bill to boost the actualisation of Nigeria’s nutrition commitments.
Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, who represented Vice President Kashim Shettima at a nutrition side event of the 2026 Health Sector-Wide Joint Annual Review in Abuja on Wednesday, lamented that about 40 per cent of Nigerian children under five are stunted, describing the situation as a major threat to the country’s human capital development.
He emphasized that nutrition must be treated as a national development priority rather than merely a social expenditure, stressing that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was committed to placing human capital development at the centre of its Renewed Hope Agenda.
Hadejia disclosed that the Federal Executive Council had approved the National Policy on Food and Nutrition as well as the National Nutrition Bill for transmission to the National Assembly.
He appealed to federal lawmakers to give the proposed legislation speedy consideration, saying its passage would provide a stronger legal foundation for the country’s nutrition commitments.
He said the National Council on Nutrition, chaired by the Vice President, is working to bring different sectors of government together to address malnutrition through a coordinated national response.
According to him, central to the new approach is the Nutrition 774 initiative, designed to establish a unified delivery framework that connects federal, state and local governments with relevant sectors to ensure that nutrition interventions reach households across the country’s 774 LGAs.
Hadejia said the initiative would require functional Local Government Committees on Food and Nutrition, costed multisectoral action plans, dedicated nutrition budget lines and clearly defined schedules for releasing and implementing approved funds.
He also called for monthly nutrition data submissions to state authorities and quarterly performance scorecards to monitor financing, implementation, service coverage and actual nutritional outcomes.
“Appropriation without release is not delivery, and release without verification is not accountability,” he said, insisting that government must track the entire chain of public spending, from budgetary commitments to actual results in communities.
Hadejia highlighted the importance of involving communities, caregivers and families in determining priorities, monitoring services and providing feedback on the quality of interventions.
The Deputy Chief of Staff urged state governors and local government chairmen to take ownership of the initiative by establishing the required structures, funding their plans and ensuring timely release of resources.
He also called on development partners to align their interventions with government-led priorities, while urging the private sector to contribute investment, innovation and supply-chain capacity to the nutrition sector.
In his keynote address, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Adekunle Salako, said the renewed primary healthcare system offered an opportunity to make nutrition services more accessible to communities nationwide.
Salako said nutrition must become an integral part of the ongoing health sector reforms, noting that every antenatal visit, immunisation session and community health worker’s home visit could provide an opportunity to identify and address nutritional deficiencies.
He explained that the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the Sector-Wide Approach had created a coordinated framework for health sector planning, budgeting and reporting across federal and state governments.
Citing figures presented at the Joint Annual Review, the minister said the maternal case fatality rate in facilities supported by the Basic Health Care Provision Fund had fallen by about 60 per cent since 2024, across more than 8,300 facilities.
He added that primary healthcare utilisation had increased from approximately 10 million visits in early 2024 to 45 million visits per quarter by mid-2025.
Salako also disclosed that more than 15,000 community-based health workers had been recruited, while over 78,000 frontline health workers had been retrained, as the government targets 120,000 by 2027.
According to him, these investments provide an existing platform for integrating nutrition services into routine primary healthcare delivery instead of relying on isolated campaigns.
He identified essential interventions to be delivered through primary healthcare facilities and community outreach programmes to include multiple micronutrient supplements for pregnant women, breastfeeding and infant feeding counselling, vitamin A supplementation, deworming, growth monitoring and early detection and treatment of child wasting.
The minister said nutrition commodities must be adequately financed and integrated into the primary healthcare supply chain, urging states to explore matching financing arrangements, including the Child Nutrition Fund, to sustain interventions through domestic resources.
He also called for nutrition indicators to be incorporated into the health sector’s results framework and Joint Annual Review scorecards, so that progress could be assessed alongside maternal and child health outcomes.
Salako said his ministry would work with the Office of the Vice President and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning to ensure that local government nutrition data generated through Nutrition 774 would be reviewed at subsequent Joint Annual Reviews.
“What the SWAp has done for health, Nutrition 774 will do for nutrition: one goal, one plan, one budget, one report,” he said, reaffirming the ministry’s support for the initiative.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Daju Kachollom said Nigeria needed to move beyond policy declarations towards large-scale implementation of proven nutrition interventions.
She identified agriculture, education, water and sanitation, food systems, social protection, gender and economic empowerment as critical sectors that must work together to address the underlying causes of malnutrition.
Kachollom said the adoption of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035 by the National Council on Nutrition, the implementation of Nutrition 774 and the National Strategic Plan of Action on Nutrition had provided important policy and institutional frameworks for accelerating progress.
She also pointed to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum’s Addis Ababa Commitment on Nutrition as an opportunity to strengthen governance, financing, accountability and coordination across different levels of government.
The Permanent Secretary said the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare would continue to strengthen community-based nutrition services, improve data systems and mobilise sustainable financing, while supporting mother-to-mother groups to promote appropriate infant and young child feeding practices.
She urged participants at the meeting to develop practical recommendations that would translate national commitments into clearly defined responsibilities and measurable deliverables across the 774 local government areas.
