The Adamawa State Government has released N300 million as a matching grant into the Child Nutrition Fund aimed at intensifying efforts to combating malnutrition across the State.
Speaking during the inauguration of the State Council on Nutrition under the Federal Nutrition 774 Initiative, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri represented by Kaletupwa Farauta his Deputy, noted that the Administration had consistently increased budgetary allocations to nutrition over the past six years.
Farauta described malnutrition as a “silent calamity” that threatens the future of children in the State.
“Malnutrition impairs growth, learning, and cognitive ability. It threatens our human capital and undermines development,” she said.
She reaffirmed the State Government’s commitment to supporting vulnerable populations through innovative platforms and interventions. She also charged local Government chairmen, who serve as focal persons for the initiative, to replicate its success in their respective LGAs.
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Earlier, Uju Vantasia, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health and Focal Person on Nutrition in the Office of the Vice President, described malnutrition as “Nigeria’s quietest but deadliest emergency.”
“One in every three Nigerian children under five is stunted, and nearly half of all child deaths in the country are linked to malnutrition,” she stated.
“This, Your Excellency, is not just a health issue it is a national emergency hiding in plain sight. It knows no religion, ethnicity, or boundary. It is the language of inequality and poverty, and we must respond with urgency, strategy, and unity”, she added.
Vantasia urged both State and Federal Governments to see nutrition investment as critical to national development.
“For every $1 invested in nutrition, we gain $23 in economic returns. That’s almost four times what we get from infrastructure investment,” she added.
The Nutrition 774 Initiative, which aims to strengthen nutrition governance and intervention across Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas, is a flagship project under the Office of the Vice President.
