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Buhari administration takes private enterprise seriously - VP Osinbajo

NaijaAgroNet:

The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration takes private enterprise seriously, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking during the Commissioning of the Edo State Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited NPK Fertilizer Plant, Auchi, Edo State on Tuesday, Osinbajo said that the state-owned fertilizer plant has been recently rehabilitated, as a Public-Private Partnership.

This accounts for the Presidential Enabling Business Council set up by President Muhammadu Buhari, the work of which was fortified by the Executive Order No. 1, which he executed on May 18, 2017, on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment and facilitation of the ease of doing business.

“The clear objective of establishing the plant is to boost farming activities and the agric value chain nationwide. This investment is a direct response to the Federal Government's strategy of growing the Nigerian economy on a zero oil assumption,” he said.

Agriculture, he noted, is that well-known, “but abandoned pathway to our economic diversification and national prosperity. The fundamental constraint to optimizing agriculture is access to inputs, fertilizer being a fundamental input. On the average, a Nigerian farmer uses 13kg per hectare of fertilizer compared with world average of 100kg per hectare. “

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, in a press statement available to NaijaAgroNet quoted VP Osinbajo as explaining why Mr. President negotiated the December 2016 Fertilizer initiative, working with the Moroccan King, aimed at achieving local production of 1 million metric tons of NPK fertilizer for 2017 wet season farming. Reducing costs and delivering finished products at N5000-5500 per bag (formerly between N8-9,000 sometimes N13,000).

This, again, he said, is an enterprise that will create at least 500 direct jobs and several more indirect jobs. It will bring us closer to self-sufficiency in fertilizer production and, perhaps most importantly, boost food production and reduce food prices, ultimately enhancing food security in Nigeria.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Drought-stricken herders in Ethiopia need urgent support

NaijaAgroNet:

Supporting herders to get back on their feet and preventing further livestock losses and suffering are crucial in drought-hit Ethiopia where hunger has been on the rise this year, warned today the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Drought has devastated herders’ livelihoods as it exhausted pastures and water sources, leading to a significant number of animals dying or falling ill, particularly in the southern and southeastern regions of the country as other areas recover from previous seasons’ El Niño-induced drought.

Drought-hit pastoralists face reduced milk production, rising malnutrition, and have limited income-earning capacity and severely constrained access to food.

Some 8.5 million people – one in 12 people – are now suffering from hunger; of these, 3.3 million people live in Somali Region.

The current food and nutrition crisis is significantly aggravated by the severe blow to pastoral livelihoods. For livestock-dependent families, the animals can literally mean the difference between life and death, especially for children, pregnant and nursing women for whom milk is a crucial source of nutrition.

With up to 2 million animals lost so far, FAO is focusing on providing emergency livestock support to the most vulnerable pastoralist communities through animal vaccination and treatment, supplementary feed and water, rehabilitating water points, and supporting fodder and feed production.

“It is crucial to provide this support between now and October – when rains are due – to begin the recovery process and prevent further losses of animals. If we don’t act now, hunger and malnutrition will only get worse among pastoral communities,” said Abdoul Karim Bah, FAO Deputy Representative in Ethiopia.

By providing supplementary feed and water for livestock, while at the  same time supporting fodder production, FAO seeks to protect core breeding animals and enable drought-hit families to rebuild their livelihoods. Animal health campaigns will be reinforced to protect animals, particularly before the rains set in, when they are at their weakest and more susceptible to parasites or infectious diseases. FAO-supported destocking and cash-for-work programmes will also provide a crucial source of cash for families.

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Mobile technology helps to transfer cash to conflict-affected rural families

NaijaAgroNet:

Many vulnerable rural families in Iraq can now benefit from a safer, more secure means of receiving income thanks to mobile money transfer technology adopted for the first time by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) as part of a cash-for-work programme aimed at rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure and land, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The programme, which is funded by the Belgian Government, will support 12,000 conflict-affected people in 30 villages in Kirkuk, Anbar, Salah al-Din and Ninewa governorates. It will benefit local farmers, by enabling them to restart or expand farming activities with rehabilitated infrastructure, and provides agricultural livelihoods opportunities for displaced people returning home.

Participants, who are from households with no other income source, include women who are often the sole breadwinners for their families, and people with a disability. The workers and their families are people who either remained in their villages during conflict or returned home after being displaced by the fighting.

"The use of mobile technology will streamline the safe delivery of cash transfers to participants, who are some of the most vulnerable people in the country," said Fadel El-Zubi, FAO Representative in Iraq. "Providing income opportunities is critical in rural areas affected by conflict, where competition for employment is high, jobs are scarce and people are struggling to support their families."

To facilitate the payments, FAO has partnered with Zain a mobile and data services operator with a commercial footprint in eight Middle Eastern and African countries. Participant names and identity numbers are pre-registered with the company, and they receive a free SIM card. Once each person completes a certain number of days of work, they receive a text message containing a personalised security code. They can then collect their wages from any certified money mobile transfer agent, provided their code and identity number match those registered.

"As well as providing much-needed income for participants, the programme will improve agricultural production in the surrounding communities, through activities including rehabilitating canals for irrigation to grow crops and preparing farmland for planting," said El-Zubi. "This, in turn, will encourage community members still displaced by conflict to return home and begin farming again. FAO's aim is to support people to get back on their feet as quickly as possible, and reduce their reliance on food assistance."

Around 12 million Iraqis reside in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Years of conflict has destroyed or damaged harvests, equipment, infrastructure, livestock, seeds, crops and stored food; and left 3.2 million Iraqis food insecure. As of 15 July 2017, more than 3.3 million people remained displaced within Iraq, while about 2 million had returned home.

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180m lack access to basic water, UNICEF

NaijaAgroNet:

Over 180 million people do not have access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability across the world, UNICEF warned today, as World Water Week gets under way.

“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene. ”In countries beset by violence, displacement, conflict and instability, children’s most basic means of survival – water – must be a priority.”

People living in fragile situations are four times more likely to lack basic drinking water than populations in non-fragile situations, according to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organisation analysis. Of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, 183 million lacked basic drinking water services.

In Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair. Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.

In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year, around 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4 million children. Water has frequently been used as a weapon of war: In 2016 alone, there were at least 30 deliberate water cuts – including in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Raqqa and Dara, with pumps destroyed and water sources contaminated.

In conflict-affected areas in northeast Nigeria, 75 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, leaving 3.6 million people without even basic water services.

In South Sudan, where fighting has raged for over three years, almost half the water points across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed.

“In far too many cases, water and sanitation systems have been attacked, damaged or left in disrepair to the point of collapse. When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Wijesekera.

In Yemen, for example, children make up more than 53 per cent of the over half a million cases of suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.  Somalia is suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea. And in South Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016.

In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are in urgent need of safe water. More than 5 million children are estimated to be malnourished this year, with 1.4 million severely so.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Good nutrition, key to breaking cycle of poverty in Nigeria - SBNN

NaijaAgroNet:

Eradicating malnutrition could increase wages by between 5 and 50 per cent and is a sure way of breaking an inter-generational cycle of poverty in Nigeria, according to Scale Up Nutrition Business Network Nigeria (SBNN), a civil society group, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking in Lagos at a one day symposium organised by Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Ms Ify Ibiso of SUN Business Network added that good nutrition can prevent "child deaths by more than one third per year, improve school attainment by at least one year, reduce poverty as well-nourished children are 33% more likely to escape poverty as adults and empower women to be 10% more likely to run their own business."

She noted that at least 33% of Nigerian children under 5y are stunted, 18% wasted, 2% overweight, while only a paltry 17% of the under-fives are exclusively breastfed.

Ms Ibiso called for improved media awareness and reporting of nutrition,  adding that her organisation is always ready to partner with journalists to not only give proper perspective to the topic but also ensure that nutrition is given adequate attention by all relevant stakeholders. 

She added: "The media is an important ally in any public health situation and in this case focusing on nutrition. It serves the role of Influencers and Investigators and is a source of correct information as well as an advocate for correct health behaviours; but before the media can take on their roles, they need to understand nutrition, the issues surrounding it, and policy and practices, in order to convey the right information.

"The SUN Business Network is willing and ready to partner with the media to improve the nutrition of the Nigerian populace especially for children."

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New IFAD-supported project boosts rural economy, livelihoods

NaijaAgroNet:

A total of 60,000 Angolan rural households in Cuanza Sul and Huila provinces will benefit from a financial agreement, signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Angola, that will generate revenue and boost food and nutrition security of poorer households. The project will increase smallholder agriculture productivity, production and marketing for selected crops and will place a special focus on women and young people.

The financing agreement for the Smallholder Agriculture Development and Commercialization Project in Cuanza Sul and Huila Provinces (SADCP-CH) was signed in Rome by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, and Florêncio Mariano da Conceição de Almeida, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Angola to IFAD.

The total cost of the project is US$38.2 million, including a $28.8 million loan from IFAD. The project will be cofinanced by the Government of Angola ($8.2 million) and by the beneficiaries themselves ($1.1 million).

During Angola’s 26-year civil war, the agriculture sector was devastated and productivity plummeted. Due to instability, many smallholder farmers reverted to subsistence farming to feed their families. What minimal surplus they had, they sold in local markets. SADCP-CH will help subsistence farmers increase agricultural production and productivity through improved agricultural practices and technologies. Farmer field schools will strengthen the skills of smallholders and their organizations.

With most agriculture in the region dependent on rainfall, SADCP-CH will also enhance access to water and more efficient water use. It will develop small-scale irrigation systems, focussing on the rehabilitation of existing schemes that cover about 500 hectares in the project area.

Support will be provided to farmers’ organizations to promote climate resilient agriculture for key priority food and horticultural crops, while working to promote investments aimed at reducing post-harvest losses and strengthening market linkages. 

For example, the project will pilot and promote low-cost technologies for storage and processing of perishable products. This will help farmers capitalize on the market, rather than being subject to opportunistic traders that are well aware of product perishability. The expectation is that the increased demand for goods and services in rural areas will spur the creation of non-farm jobs, in particular for the young people.

Since 1991, IFAD has financed six rural development programmes and projects in Angola for a total cost of $139.7 million, with an IFAD investment of $76.0 million directly benefiting 261,600 rural households.

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Food security: Pope Francis donates to FAO

NaijaAgroNet:

The Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, in an unprecedented move, has symbolically donated €25,000 to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO's) efforts supporting people facing food insecurity and famine in East Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Pope Francis said the funds are "a symbolic contribution to an FAO programme that provides seeds to rural families in areas affected by the combined effects of conflicts and drought."

The pontiff's remarks were contained in a letter to FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva by Monsignor Fernando Chica Arellano, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN food agencies in Rome.

Pope Francis' gesture stemmed from a pledge he made in a message to FAO's Conference on 3 July 2017 and was "inspired also by the desire to encourage Governments," Monsignor Chica wrote in the letter.

Famine was declared in parts of South Sudan in February and while the situation has eased after a significant scaling up in the humanitarian response, some 6 million people in the country are still struggling to find enough food every day.

Meanwhile the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in five other East African countries - Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - is currently estimated at about 16 million, which marks an increase of about 30 percent since late 2016.

Pope Francis, who has made solidarity a major theme of his pontificate, is set to visit FAO's headquarters on 16 October to mark World Food Day. This year the event is being held under the slogan: "Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development".

Isaac Oyimah/ED, ops

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FG urged to fund nutrition to save children

NaijaAgroNet:

The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has been urged to commit adequate funds to address the growing menace of malnutrition, with experts and stakeholders saying the way to avert the danger is for the country to not just fund projects targeted at treating the millions of children stunted by malnutrition but commit to awareness campaigns to prevent the disease, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at a one-day symposium on 'malnutrition, child development and the media' organised by the Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Sunday Okoronkwo, a project manager at the Civil Society on Scaling Up Nutrition Nigeria (CS-SUNN), explained that the country currently does not have proper funding to address the problem, warning also that figures such as 11m Nigerian children being stunted may well be a poor representation of the reality.

Okoronkwo, who stood in for CS-SUNN project director, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, at the event also attended by other top pro-nutrition civil society groups, including Community Health and Research Initiative (CHRI), Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network Nigeria and Global Alliance on Improved Nutrition (GAIN),  lamented that the country's $912m action plan on nutrition for the years 2014 through 2019 remains largely unfunded, with Nigeria’s $100m counterpart funding of the policy hardly making it into the annual budgets.

According to him, the country's 2017 budget has no provision for the plan which expires in 2019.

Speaking on ‘Dealing with nutritional Fads and Fallacies’, Dr. Aminu Garba, chairman of CHRI, called for declaration of emergency on malnutrition, called for sustained media engagement, among other steps, to address the many fallacies around the question of nutrition.

Garba outlined these to include cultural claims that giving newborns colostrum exposes them to witchcraft or that children and women should not eat meat or take adequate milk.

Remmy Nweke, the national coordinator of MeCAM Nigeria, said the organisation evolved from the unique need for the media to respond to the national emergency on malnutrition. He insisted that government’s funding to combat malnutrition is not “commensurate” to the volume and potential consequences of the unfolding crisis.

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5 Secrets about Ghana Jollof that Nigerians don't know

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet:

1. Ghana Jollof is made with love : Ghanaians prepare their jollof with ingredients and spices drawn from the streams of love and that reflects in the aroma and taste of our jollof,days after it is cooked.

2. Ghana Jollof is the "Aliko Dangote" of African foods : In as much as jollof originally originated from SenegalGambian empire of Jolof,Ghanaians took the prototype and built upon it to become what the world knows it. Ghana jollof is entrepreneurial.

3.Ghana jollof is scalable : The tricks of preparing different versions of Ghanaian jollof makes it easy to be prepared from any part of the world.Nigeria jollof is a one way method making it difficult to be prepared in regions like China,Russia,North Korea,London,etc. 

4. Ghana Jollof is a balanced diet recommended to fight child malnutrition across the continent. Nigerians must come to Ghana to learn how we are using Jollof to overcome hunger and malnutrition.Former President Rawlings donated jollof to our Somalian brothers.

5.Ghana Jollof is celebrated as festival : Ghana Tourism Authority celebrates a National jollof festival because our jollof has balls.Ghana jollof is eaten with confidence across the globe due to it's high nutritional content. You don't have leftover for our jollof.Ghana jollof is bae
#jollofbattle #ghanajollof #nigeriansmustknowthetruth#Ghanajollofcanhealtheirpresident 

Contributed by: Chef Elijah A. Addo,2017 Queens Young Leader and founder of Food for All Africa in recognition of the Ghana Jollof Festival scheduled for 26th August, 2017 is being organised to promote Ghanaian cuisine, and is in connection with the “See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana, Feel Ghana campaign initiated by the Ghana Tourism Authority.

Twitter : @professoraddo

Instagram : @chefelijah.addo

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2017 Nutrition Symposium: 13% Nigerians risk mental deformation

NaijaAgroNet:

Estimated 13 per cent of Nigerian children risk growing up with mental deformity unless proper iodine is part of their nutrition, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Professor emeritus, Babatunde Oguntona, who gave this indication in Lagos at a one-day Nutrition Symposium on ‘Malnutrition,  Child Development and the Media’ organised by the Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM).

He also called on government to pay greater attention to public health.

“If we don't keep iodine level properly, we'll have 13% of Nigerian children mentally deformed,” Prof. Oguntona said.

Lamenting the situation, Prof. Oguntona imagineed that about 13 percent of parliamentarians are mentally deformed and wondered the kind of policies and legislation.

"Inadequate iodine in our food is a serious threat. You can't talk of development when you ignore the issue of nutrition status of your people,” he declared, rapping the Nigerian authorities for their poor response to the threats of malnutrition.

Oguntona, a former president of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, said between 13 and 18 Nigerian children die of malnutrition and related diseases every hour and called on the media to step up advocacy on the issue.

Ivy Ibiso KingHarry, an associate at the Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network | Global Alliance on Improved Nutrition (GAIN), said the media have a duty to promote messages on nutrition as influencers and change agents. 

She added however that such media efforts must flow from proper understanding of the science of nutrition and effective delivery of messages in language understood by common people.

She urged reporters to always fact-check and scrutinize official data on malnutrition, be consistent and build trust in their duty as gatekeepers.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Prof Oguntona leads speakers @MeCAM Nutrition Symposium’17

NaijaAgroNet:

Erudite scholar on nutrition, and former president, Prof. Babatunde Oguntona would this Friday led other experts to the one-day 2017 Nutrition Symposium  being organized by the Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM)  in Lagos.

Top speakers to join Prof. Oguntona in dissecting the theme: "Malnutrition, child development and the media" on Friday, August 4 at Welcome Centre Hotels, would include the Project Director at the Civil Society on Scaling-Up Nutrition Nigeria (CS-SUNN) Mrs. Beatrice Eluaka and chairman, Community Health and Research Initiative (CHRI) board, Dr Aminu Magashi Garba.

Confirming this, the National Coordinator of Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Mr. Remmy Nweke, said the Country Coordinator, and Scaling-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) Nigeria, Uduak Igbeka and Head, Nutrition at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu.

He further said that Prof. Oguntona was a graduate of University of Ibadan with a degree on Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition in 1970 and holds in addition, M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Nutrition from the Universities of London and Nottingham respectively.

Oguntona, he said, was a pioneer professor at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB) in 1988, and has headed Department, Dean of College and Centre Director. In 2006 he was made Dean of Faculty of Agriculture and Rural Development (FAMARD) at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (Ayetoro Campus).

Prof. Oguntona has trained hundreds of students at both undergraduate and post graduate levels over the past 36 years. He season author of both national and international, including co-authoring of the report on National Food Consumption and Nutritional Status, and the principal author of Nigerian Food Composition Table.

A Nutrition consultant to the Federal Ministry of Health for 22 years, Prof. Oguntona and has consulted for several governments  including Ghana, Liberia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Zambia as well as for some International Agencies, among other organizations.

A recipient of many distinguished International awards on Nutrition including BP Protein, Leverhulme Trust, ACU/Carnagie Corporation, to name a few, having been a Professor of Nutrition since 1990, he is a member of many professional and social organisations. He is the past president of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria and a fellow of that society. He is presently the Chair of Nigeria Beverage Panel and is married to Professor Clara Raquel Oguntona.

MeCAM, he said, is peopled exclusively by journalists, and mediapreneurs to push the narratives to save the Nigerian child from the danger of malnutrition through scaling up reporting and advocacy, among others.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Breastfeed suffers lack of investment, babies, mothers in danger

NaijaAgroNet:

No country in the world fully meets recommended standards for breastfeeding, according to a new report by NaijaAgroNet.

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have disclosed that breast feeding in the recent past suffered lack of investment.

They also said that collaboration with the Global Breastfeeding Collective, a new initiative to increase global breastfeeding rates.

Just as they lauded the Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, which evaluated 194 nations, saying that it found that only 40 per cent of children younger than six months are breastfed exclusively (given nothing but breast milk) and only 23 countries have exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent.

Evidence shows that breastfeeding has cognitive and health benefits for both infants and their mothers. It is especially critical during the first six months of life, helping prevent diarrhoea and pneumonia, two major causes of death in infants. Mothers who breastfeed have a reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancer, two leading causes of death among women.

“Breastfeeding gives babies the best possible start in life,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “Breastmilk works like a baby’s first vaccine, protecting infants from potentially deadly diseases and giving them all the nourishment they need to survive and thrive.”

The scorecard was released at the start of World Breastfeeding Week alongside a new analysis demonstrating that an annual investment of only US$4.70 per newborn is required to increase the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months to 50 per cent by 2025.

They posited that Investment Case for Breastfeeding, could save the lives of 520,000 children under the age of five and potentially generate US$300 billion in economic gains over 10 years, as a result of reduced illness and health care costs and increased productivity.

“Breastfeeding is one of the most effective – and cost effective – investments nations can make in the health of their youngest members and the future health of their economies and societies,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “By failing to invest in breastfeeding, we are failing mothers and their babies – and paying a double price: in lost lives and in lost opportunity.”

The investment case shows that in five of the world’s largest emerging economies—China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria—the lack of investment in breastfeeding results in an estimated 236,000 child deaths per year and US$119 billion in economic losses.

Globally, investment in breastfeeding is far too low. Each year, governments in lower- and middle-income countries spend approximately US$250 million on breastfeeding programs; and donors provide only an additional US$85 million.

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MeCAM hosts Nutrition Symposium’17 @Welcome Centre

NaijaAgroNet:

The Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM) has declared that all is set to host its first-ever Nutrition Symposium scheduled to hold in Lagos on Friday, August 4 at Welcome Centre Hotels, this year, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The National Coordinator of Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Mr. Remmy Nweke, said the theme would focus on "Malnutrition, child development and the media."

This, he said is coming as MeCAM is partnering with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN), to enhance information sharing as far as nutrition in the country.

He also said that the partnership would benefit child development and the role of media, in a developing economy like Nigeria and beckoned on other stakeholders to emulate GAIN by partnering with MeCAM in this auspicious event.

Equally, Nweke who is  the Group Executive Editor, DigitalSENSE Africa that at the forthcoming Nutrition Symposium by MeCAM, would see to the leadership of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) taking discussion on “Communicating Nutrition Messages to Stakeholders: Role of the Media.”

The GAIN and SBN team, he confirmed, would be led by Country Team Lead at GAIN and coordinator of SBN Nigeria, Uduak Igbeka, and would dwell on the sub-theme with expertise and dispatch, alongside other experts with vast experiences on the subject matter.

Further, he quoted the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as recently declaring that estimated 12.9 per cent of the Nigeria’s 190m population has been projected to be among some 5 million undernourished people in the world today.

Nweke revealed that MeCAM is resolute to use this symposium to not just draw public attention to the threat that malnutrition poses to the future of the country, but to also correct the impression that this menace is restricted to the poor.

He emphasized that UNICEF had estimated, at least 2.5m Nigerian children suffer from acute malnutrition (SAM), thus posing the danger of many of them being at risk of death unless properly treated and of course with right information.

This situation, he said, represents clear and is dangerous to the socioeconomic wellbeing of the entire country.

MeCAM, he said, is peopled exclusively by journalists, and mediapreneurs to push the narratives to save the Nigerian child from the danger of malnutrition through scaling up reporting and advocacy, among others. 

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