Vice-President Kashim Shettima has raised concerns over Nigeria’s worsening nutrition crisis, warning that malnutrition poses a serious threat to the country’s human capital and long-term development.
Shettima, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Health and Focal Person on Nutrition, Uju Rochas-Anwukah, disclosed that 41.1 per cent of Nigerian children under the age of five are stunted, with the figure rising to 58.2 per cent in the North-West.
He also said only six per cent of pregnant women completed at least 180 days of iron supplementation in 2024, against a national target of 70 per cent by 2035.
The Vice-President spoke on Tuesday at the opening of the 56th Annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria in Lagos.
The conference, themed, “Delivering Better Nutrition for All: Connecting the Dots Across Life Cycle, Systems and Sectors”, brought together policymakers, researchers, nutrition professionals and development partners to discuss strategies for tackling malnutrition.
Shettima said the figures underscored the need for government, the private sector, researchers and communities to work together to address the country’s nutrition challenges.
“Every nation writes its future twice: first in the body of the child, and later in the institutions that the child will inherit,” he said.
“Before intelligence becomes achievement, before labour becomes productivity, nutrition has already made its first claim on human possibility.”
He added that only 30 per cent of women of reproductive age met the minimum dietary diversity requirement, compared with a national target of 60 per cent by 2035.
Shettima said the gap should prompt stronger action from institutions responsible for improving nutrition outcomes.
He stressed that Nigeria’s nutrition policies should be assessed by their impact on households and communities rather than by the number of policy documents produced.
The Vice-President said the National Nutrition Dashboard should be used as an accountability tool for evidence-based governance, while food fortification programmes should be measured by their impact on micronutrient deficiencies.
He said the Federal Government was pursuing a multisectoral approach through the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035 and the Nutrition 774 Initiative, which seeks to expand nutrition interventions across all 774 local government areas.
Shettima urged nutrition professionals and researchers to identify implementation gaps and generate evidence capable of influencing government budgets and programmes.
“Good intentions do not feed a child. Budgets must be released on time, expenditures tracked, and every naira judged by measurable community impact,” he said.
Sanusi calls for stronger nutrition financing
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Muhammadu Sanusi II, said Nigeria’s latest nutrition figures should prompt the government to treat nutrition as a central development issue.
Sanusi said 19.2 per cent of Nigerian children under five were severely stunted, stressing that nutrition was closely linked to productivity, cognitive development, maternal survival and national resilience.
“Nutrition must therefore be treated as a central pillar of Nigeria’s development agenda, not a peripheral programme reserved for moments of crisis,” he said.
He called for increased and protected funding for nutrition programmes, dedicated budget lines, timely releases of funds, expenditure tracking and stronger compliance with food fortification standards.
Sanusi also urged the speedy passage of the Nutritionists Registration Council of Nigeria Bill, saying effective regulation would help strengthen professional standards and protect the public.
The President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Prof. Salisu Maiwada Abubakar, described the country’s nutrition situation as “both a warning and a call to action”.
Abubakar said Nigeria needed to integrate nutrition interventions across the life cycle and strengthen links between food systems, healthcare, education, social protection, water and sanitation.
He said the challenge was no longer simply to reduce malnutrition but to reform the systems responsible for producing it and ensure that Nigerians had access to safe, affordable, diverse and nutritious diets.
Calls for stronger data and regulation
Declaring the conference open, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Dayo Lajide, said nutrition remained critical to health, human capital development and economic growth.
Lajide said Nigeria was facing a “triple burden” of malnutrition, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity, as well as diet-related non-communicable diseases.
He called for stronger evidence-based policies, improved nutrition data, better surveillance systems and innovative interventions targeting vulnerable groups, particularly women, children, adolescents and economically disadvantaged communities.
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, also called for stronger collaboration among regulators, nutrition professionals, academics, industry stakeholders and policymakers.
She said greater collaboration was necessary to ensure that Nigerians had access to safe, nutritious and properly labelled food products.
The conference is expected to examine strategies for strengthening Nigeria’s nutrition systems and reversing the country’s burden of malnutrition.
