Oluwatobi Adu 
LAGOS, Nigeria – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Lagos State Government to sustain investments in child nutrition, saying nearly three million children under the age of five depend on the success of the state’s ongoing 2026 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW).
The appeal was made on Thursday during the flag-off of the first round of the week-long health campaign at the Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Secretariat.
UNICEF Chief of Office in Lagos, Celine Lafoucriere, commends the wife of the Lagos State Governor, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, for supporting child health and nutrition programmes across the state.
She says health workers will use the campaign to deliver a range of free health services, including Vitamin A supplementation, deworming tablets, malnutrition screening for children and micronutrient supplements for pregnant women.
“During the week-long campaign, health workers will visit communities across the state to administer Vitamin A supplements to improve children’s immunity and eyesight, provide deworming tablets to children, screen babies for malnutrition, and distribute micronutrient supplements to pregnant women to safeguard maternal and child health.”
Lafoucriere says UNICEF has supplied Vitamin A and micronutrient supplements, mobilised communities and deployed monitoring teams but stresses that sustained government funding remains essential.
She praises the Lagos State Government for releasing ₦156 million through the Child Nutrition Match Fund last year, saying the investment expanded access to life-saving nutrition commodities.
“When a government invests its own resources in child nutrition, it expands the programme’s reach, allows more children and mothers to be served, and improves the efficiency of service delivery.”
“Government agencies, community leaders and the traditional medicine board must intensify efforts to identify and prosecute illegal practitioners whose activities endanger lives.”
About the Author
Korede Abdullah 
