An NGO, Developmental Communications Network, on Friday said about 800,000 children under the age of five died annually in the country.
DEVCOMS, in a statement by its Programme Officer, Biodun Owo, in Lagos, said half the deaths had malnutrition as the underlying cause.
The statement said: “In Nigeria, about 12.3 million children suffer from chronic malnutrition, out of which 300,000 are at risk of dying.
“For those that survive, reaching their full potential becomes an uphill struggle.
“Malnutrition, including under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, including Vitamin A, Iron deficiency, Iodine remains problems of public health significance in Nigeria.”
The statement added that the 2015 National Nutrition and Health Survey indicated that 19.4 per cent of children under five years old were underweight.
It also stated that 32.9 per cent were stunted and 7.2 per cent were wasted.
It added: “These have far-reaching effects on individuals and impede the economic development of nations; however, the deficiencies can be effectively tackled through food fortification.
“Food fortification is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient.
“That is, vitamins and minerals, including trace elements in food, irrespective of whether the nutrients are originally in the food before processing or not.
“So as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.”
It said the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in collaboration with the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control, had on May 10 hosted a stakeholder’s summit on food fortification.
According to the statement, the summit aims to reduce the undesirable impact of malnutrition and sustain the food fortification programme in Nigeria.
It said: “Stakeholders at the summit agreed that scaling up the availability and consumption of fortified foods in Nigeria will contribute to the achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals.
“Reduce the incidence of Spina Bifida in unborn children, anaemia among women of reproductive age and enhance cognitive development within the first 1000 days of life.”
The statement said the roadmap of activities subsequently agreed by stakeholders to address the above issues include the need for better monitoring of fortification efforts.
This, according to it, will include industry self-regulation, and enforcement of necessary laws and regulations by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and NAFDAC.
It said: “Also, there is the need to create a better enabling environment for fortification.
“Such as by working with the Nigeria Custom Services to ensure that micronutrient premixes can be imported, without current inappropriate and prohibitive taxes.
“There is the need to provide appropriate and adequate consumer education, awareness, social marketing, and ensure coverage to the base of the pyramid population segments and hard-to-reach groups.”
NAN
