The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has said it has initiated processes to reach and properly feed one million children across the country.
The move, according to the Foundation, is to complement and boost government’s efforts in tackling the issue of malnutrition in Nigeria.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) had reported that while malnutrition is a direct or underlying cause of 45 per cent of all deaths of under-five children, Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 37
per cent of children under five.
The UN agency in a statement on its website also noted that an estimated two million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), but only two out of every 10 children affected is
currently reached with treatment.
It added that seven percent of women of childbearing age also suffer from acute malnutrition, and that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life offer a unique window of opportunity for preventing under nutrition and its consequences.
To reverse the negative trend, the chairman of Aliko Dangote
Foundation and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, said, “We recognise nutrition as a cross-cutting issue which affects other critical development goals, that is why nutrition has become our core
focus.
“We want to reach one million malnourished children in Nigeria
and we know that for every dollar invested in nutrition, the nation as
a whole will reap huge economic dividends.
“In addition, we shall reach households of children with SAM and their
communities that contribute the most to the SAM burden with food security, cash-based interventions and livelihoods support, engendered infant and young child feeding, hygiene and care-seeking behaviours.”