- Many Nigerian children are currently suffering from “hidden hunger” – WHO
- Not less than N95 billion needed to treat two million malnourished Nigerian children – UNICEF
By Kazeem Akolawole
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines malnutrition as deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients.
Similarly, a UNICEF report further reveals that while stunting and wasting of children is high and poses significant public health and development risks, obesity is also a growing concern across Nigeria.
According to the UNICEF report, right dieting at a time seems to be much more cheaper than treating a severely malnourished child in Nigeria as currently not less than N50,000 is required to treat a severely malnourished child under the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM).
UNICEF data also shows that not less than N95 billion is required to treat about 2 million malnourished children in Nigeria.
It states that stunting, in addition to an increased risk of death, is also linked to poor cognitive development, a lowered performance in education and low productivity in adulthood in which they are all contributing to economic losses estimated to account for as much as 11 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Data on Nigeria’s Malnutrition Findings
According to the 2022 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on a national scale, only about 32 per cent (3 in every 10) of children between the ages of 6 months to 23 months are fed minimum diet diversity, that is, 5 out of 8 food groups.
This implies that 7 out of every 10 children are missing out on the minimum nutritional requirements to guarantee their proper growth and development.
While poverty, lack of formal education, food crisis, insecurity, and other negative socio-economic indices are direct and indirect factors exacerbating the situation of malnutrition, the MICS, however, showed that the concept of malnutrition is no respecter of social class, mobility, or demography.
The data also showed that among the rich, the only 54 per cent of their children are fed the minimum nutritional diet. Hence, an astounding 46 per cent (4 in every 10 children of the children of the rich are still at risk of severe acute malnutrition.
For the poor, the situation is worse; only 17 per cent receive the minimum nutritional diet. Therefore, 83 per cent (8 in every 10 children) are at risk of severe form of malnutrition.
Furthermore, among the educated (higher/tertiary education), only 51 per cent of their children are fed the minimum nutritional diet, while for the uneducated, only 17 per cent are fed the minimum nutritional diet.
In urban areas, 43 per cent of the children are fed the minimum nutritional diet; while for those in rural settlements only 24 per cent are fed the minimum nutritional diet. These statistics are worrisome.
Malnutrition in Nigeria has generated into public health menace but malnutrition is totally preventable if children are given the right combination of food.
The study also revealed if Nigeria focuses on prevention, which is easier and relatively cheap, the billions of naira being spent to manage and treat malnourished children yearly could have been rightly channeled to address other equally pressing aspects of healthcare, especially in reducing the catastrophic cost associated with procuring qualitative healthcare services, particularly for the poor and vulnerable.
Aside the health challenges directly associated with malnutrition, there is also the loss of quality time and man-hour, either for work or education, as the child-patient will require the attention of family members or close relatives while on admission in a health facility for days, and sometimes weeks.
The child, if he or she is of school age, will miss school; while the parent or guardian skips work while providing care for the child. This, in turn, affects his or her productivity, earnings and overall contributions to the economic basket of the country.
With the damaging effects that malnutrition has on the cognitive and intellectual growth of children, if nothing is done very quickly to address this menace, Nigeria may as well say goodbye to the valuable contributions of a sizable number of its “leaders of tomorrow,” in terms of their intellectual, social and economic contributions.
Giving credence to the above, the Federal Government has stated that about half of all the cases of malnutrition are the result of ignorance of the right combination of foods, as opposed to the availability of the food items or their cost.
In September 2022, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in his speech at the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care (PHC) service delivery, in Abuja, tasked the traditional leaders to use their strategic positions of influence to encourage mothers on the importance of visiting PHC centers to get proper education on sundry health issues, particularly on how to correctly prepare affordable but balanced meals for their children.
According to the Minister of Health, “Primary Health Care centers should be facilities where mothers can be educated about nutrition and the right food combination. The biggest disease is ignorance. People need to be taught on measures to prevent disease and promote health.
“Women need to be educated on nutrition, that is, what is the best food. Researchers have found that almost half of all malnutrition is not due to the lack of the right food. It is just that they (mothers) don’t know which the right one is.
“They are giving their children the wrong food. When the child eventually gets very sick, they will now start using the ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF). Whereas with proper education, the mothers would know what to give. They have the food but they give the wrong things.”
Parents, Guardians on Right Food Combination From Local Food
Most communities across the country have more than one of the following food items: corn, cowpea, guinea corn, potato, cassava, plantain, beans, spinach, jute leave (ewedu), pumpkin leaves (Ugu), pepper, tomato, groundnut, crayfish, red oil, mango, pineapple, orange, and many others as Nigeria is blessed with readily available food items that can be combined effectively for children that would make a lot of difference in their health and wellbeing.
A good number of Nigerian children are currently suffering from what is referred to as hidden hunger, which according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is simply a lack of vitamins and minerals.
In 2021, Nestle Nigeria launched a campaign centered on tackling the challenge of “hidden hunger,” particularly of micronutrient deficiency. The “Live Strong With Iron” campaign, done in partnership with the Federal Government, Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), Office of the First Lady, among others, addressed iron deficiency, especially among women and children.
It also ramped up community advocacy programmes, as well as broadcast and social media campaigns, to drive change in nutrition behaviour, choice and consumption in order to meet daily iron requirements.
