Worried by food inflation in the country, AugustSecrets has called for a more robust agricultural policy to help drive down the accessibility and affordability of food.
The baby food solutions company also urged families to apply creative ways to manage the situation. Chief Executive Officer of AugustSecrets, Oluwatoyin Onigbanjo, stated this, at Nigeria’s first nutrition summit in Lagos, at the weekend.
The summit aims to equip parents, career professionals, dieticians, nutritionists, and childcare professionals, among others with vital knowledge of incorporating African superfoods into their children’s diets.
According to Onigbanjo, once families can apply creative approaches to manage food inflation, and the agricultural policy is there, then there are chances to advocate value addition to food crops in the country. She noted food items need not be expensive to be healthy for consumption.
“Sometimes when you look around your house, there is no meat or fish to add to your children’s food, but you have crayfish. You forget that crayfish and locust beans are highly nutritious for children and even adults,” she said.
Onigbanjo further reminded everyone of the impact of nutrition on daily productivity at family, local and federal levels. Chief Executive Officer and founder of Diet 234, Collins Akanno, lamented that “malnutrition is a very serious problem in the country,” while calling for a collective effort to fight it.
Akanno said: “Nutrition is very important in raising children, who will thrive because the first 1,000 days are what we call the critical window period. It starts from conception till when the child is about two years old. If they do not have the right nutrition, their physical growth will be hampered. It is also going to affect their immune function, so we must champion that, especially.”
