Shettima Pushes Domestic Financing To Close Nigeria’s N500bn Nutrition Gap

Shettima urges states to strengthen nutrition governance as Nigeria adopts domestic financing to bridge funding gaps.

Nutrition 774 Initiative Strategy Board has adopted a domestic financing model as the sustainable foundation for nutrition investment in Nigeria. This comes as Chairman of the board, Vice President Kashim Shettima, charged the remaining 27 states that have not inaugurated their State Councils on Nutrition to close the gap by doing so.

The board also mandated the Federal Ministry of Finance and other critical partners to embark on a robust stakeholder engagement programme in order to activate existing financing instruments, including Presidential Nutrition Intervention Fund (PNIF) and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) levy ring-fence.

Those were the high points of decisions taken on Wednesday during the Second High-Level Strategic Board meeting of the Nutrition 774 Initiative presided by the vice president at State House, Abuja.

On the milestones achieved in the operationalisation of the initiative, the board highlighted the importance of the Nutrition 774 Initiative as the primary governance vehicle for delivering nutrition outcomes at scale across all 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria.

Addressing the meeting, Shettima, who doubles as Chairman of the National Council on Nutrition, stated that at the subnational level, the state governments and Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) must help complete the state-level architecture.

The vice president urged NGF and Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to ensure the inauguration of the remaining 26 State Councils on Nutrition and the establishment of the Local Government Committees on Food and Nutrition (LGCFNs) in the remaining 304 local government areas across the country.

On the proposed National Nutrition Bill, Shettima urged the secretariat to liaise with critical stakeholders in the National Assembly, subnational governments, and other partners in the nutrition sector with a view to getting valuable inputs from them before formally transmitting same to the National Assembly.

He called for the activation of domestic financing architecture, warning that as donor financing for nutrition declines across the world, Nigeria can no longer plan on the assumption of indefinite external support.

According to the vice president, “The domestic financing architecture must be activated now, in this administration, within this governance cycle, and under the accountability of this Board.

“At the same time, the first 1,000 days of a child’s life do not wait for memos, circulars, or budget negotiations. While we deliberate, children across this country are within a window of growth that cannot be recovered once lost.

“This is why every constituency in this room must see its role in precise terms. The Federal Ministries here represented have nutrition obligations beyond the Ministry of Health. Agriculture determines the diversity, quality, and quantity of food available to households.”

Shettima explained, “Finance, Budget, and Economic Planning hold the appropriation-release-expenditure chain, and funds appropriated for nutrition that are never released do not feed children. Education carries the responsibility of knowledge and behaviour change. WASH, Women Affairs, Humanitarian Affairs, and Social Protection each hold a key to prevention, resilience, and access.”

Shettima maintained that the legislature must give nutrition the legal backing and enforceability it required, while development partners “must align investments with the N-774 rail”.

He stated, “Civil society must hold up the mirror of truth. The private sector must recognise nutrition as an economic issue, because productivity begins with a healthy body and a capable mind.”

The vice president said the N500 billion financing gap must be closed, saying every serious government eventually reaches the point where intentions must face instruments.

According to him, “The N500 billion financing gap before us must move from a figure in a presentation to a funded programme on the ground. The National Nutrition Bill must move from zero draft to the National Assembly.

“The remaining State Councils and LGA Committees must be activated. The reports before us are decision-enabling reports, and our duty is to decide.”

Shettima stated that the Nutrition 774 High-level Strategic Board was created to serve as a governance and accountability structure for the N-774 Initiative because every member of the NCN had a defined responsibility in the delivery chain.

According to him, the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration “places human capital development at the centre of Nigeria’s development trajectory, and nutrition is the foundation of that human capital.

“A malnourished child cannot become the engineer who builds our roads, the teacher who shapes our classrooms, the scientist who expands our frontiers, or the leader who carries our national burden. They deserve dignity in their aspiration to be what they desire.”

The vice president said President Bola Tinubu understood the crucial role of nutrition in a child’s growth “with the urgency of a reformer and the patience of a builder,” and his “commitment to nutrition is a governance directive,” which the board exists to operationalise.

The meeting was attended by Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman; Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Hon. Chike Okafor; Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate; Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari; Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim; Minister of State for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, and Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries of Budget and Economic Planning, Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and his Water Resources counterpart, Professor Joseph Ustev, attended the event virtually.