The Adamawa State Government has released N300 million as a matching grant to the Child Nutrition Fund in a renewed effort to tackle the rising malnutrition crisis across the state.

Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, represented by his deputy, Professor Kaletapwa Farauta, announced the release on Monday during the inauguration of the State Council on Nutrition under the federal government’s “Nutrition 774” initiative.

Farauta described malnutrition as a “silent calamity” that hampers children’s growth, learning, and cognitive development, noting that it poses a major threat to human capital and long-term development.

“It threatens our human capital and undermines development,” she said, adding that malnutrition remains a major barrier to education and a productive future for children in the state.

She noted that the Fintiri administration had consistently increased budgetary allocations to nutrition in the past six years, reaffirming its commitment to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable groups.

The deputy governor urged local government chairmen, who serve as focal persons, to replicate the initiative’s success at the grassroots level to ensure broader impact across the state.

Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health and Focal Person on Nutrition in the Office of the Vice President, Uju Vantsasiya, described malnutrition as “Nigeria’s quietest but deadliest emergency.”

“Today, one in every three Nigerian children under five is stunted, and nearly half of all child deaths in our nation are linked to malnutrition,” Vantsasiya said.

She emphasized that the crisis transcends religion, ethnicity, and geography, calling it “the language of inequality and poverty” that demands urgent, coordinated action.

Vantsasiya further urged governments at all levels to increase investment in nutrition, noting that “for every $1 invested in nutrition, we gain $23 in economic returns—almost four times what we gain from infrastructure investment.”

The Nutrition 774 initiative aims to establish sustainable, community-led strategies to combat malnutrition across all 774 local government areas in Nigeria.