The Honourable Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has described the National Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey report as an important document that will turn policy programming and implementation into evidence-based programming as it has good evidence to inform.
The Minister made the remark in his keynote address at the launching of the report, which was held in Abuja with a call for engaging traditional and religious leaders to understand the report and enlighten their followers to achieve maximum goals of improving nutrition among Nigerians.
Professor Pate stated that Nigeria is undergoing multiple transitions ranging from political, economic, demographic, restructuring, emergence of non-communicable diseases and nutritional transition which informed the launching of the 2021 National Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey report.
Hon. Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare (middle) , Hon.Minister of state Agriculture and Food Security
and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare at the launching of NFCMS REPORT.
The Coordinating Minister emphasized that these transitions are part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu that is expected to work for all Nigerians, urging that the team that undertook the survey should not relent but take it up from where it is, to ensure that malnutrition cases are reduced in the country.
He congratulated the members of the team, funders of the project, key ministries involved in the exercise and development partners for this achievement, and thanked them for the job done.
The Honourable Coordinating Minister further expressed hope that the report will be fully implemented to improve positively in the fight against malnutrition in Nigeria.
In her closing remarks, the Permanent Secretary of Health, Daju Kachollum S mni, applauded the commitments of the planning committee, stating that the document created a need for other countries to emulate Nigeria.
She further appreciated the contributions of the key ministries, namely: Health, Budget and Economic Planning, Agriculture and Food Security, development partners for their financial and technical assistance as well as the executive officers of agencies in the health sector, commissioners of Health of various states, donors and others for their support to make the launch successful.
The Permanent Secretary assured that the Ministry of Health would not relent in discharging its mandate of providing good health to the citizens.
Goodwill messages from the Office of the Vice President, His Excellency, Kashim Shetima, National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Commission, Standard Organization of Nigeria, NAPDAC, and development partners such as GAIN, Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation, Nutrition International, UNICEF, USAID and World Bank were delivered with a call for additional funding and effective implementation of the report in policy formulation and implementation on the food system, food security and Nutrition in Nigeria.
The 2021 National Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey report is the third in series of such exercises and was carried out by the Federal Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, Budget and Economic Planning, Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with development partners, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was engaged as the lead implementing agency to examine among others: the status of sufficient intake and coverage of key interventions; review the National Micronutrients strategy and to set priorities and deploy programmes.
Ado Bako
AD INFO&PR
02/05/24
