The National Council on Nutrition (NCN), chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, has set up a Nutrition Financing Sub-committee to develop a funding structure to finance Nigeria’s nutrition interventions.
This is just as the Vice President has called for more nutrition financing in order to bridge the gap between promises made and lives changed, saying the National Nutrition Bill should be pursued with urgency.
The committee constituted on Thursday during a meeting of the NCN held virtually is expected to come up with a financing roadmap within 30 days and present the document to the National Council on Nutrition and the National Economic Council (NEC) for review and final adoption.
Members of the sub-committee, chaired by the Minister of Health, Prof. Muhammad Pate, include the Ministers of Education, Water Resources, Women Affairs, and Science and Technology, as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, while the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning will serve as the Secretariat.
Chairman of the Council, Vice President Shettima, also directed the involvement of development partners and private investors in the committee, including the Aliko Dangote Foundation.
Disclosing the outcome of the meeting, VP Shettima said, “Council recognises the importance of establishing a strong legal and institutional framework to sustain coordination, financing, and accountability across sectors. Council therefore resolves that the National Nutrition Bill should be pursued with urgency.
“The Ad-hoc Technical Committee will continue its work and will be co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, reflecting the central role of both financing and food systems in improving nutrition outcomes.”
He said the NCN also resolved that budget allocations must be matched with timely releases and effective utilisation, even as Ministries, Departments, and Agencies must ensure that approved funds for nutrition-related programmes are released and implemented accordingly.
Acknowledging the strategic importance of the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) 2.0 Project in addressing urgent service delivery gaps in high-burden states, VP Shettima, on behalf of the Council, encouraged state Governors to fast-track the necessary actions at the state level to ensure timely implementation and effective utilisation of the available resources.
“If our efforts are to succeed, they must not stop at the federal level. Nutrition outcomes are ultimately determined within households and communities. This requires stronger sub-national ownership and deeper grassroots engagement, ensuring that states, local governments, community leaders, and frontline workers play their full role in implementation,” he added.
The NCN further resolved that women must remain at the center of these efforts since they are the backbone of household nutrition, childcare, and food systems, just as the Vice President observed that their voices, leadership, and participation must be fully integrated into planning, decision-making, and programme delivery.
“Our collective responsibility is to ensure that the policies and commitments we make here translate into real improvements in homes and communities across all 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria,” he noted.
The Vice President noted that while the issue was no longer about whether nutrition mattered, the central reform issue before us is financing, not as theory, but as execution.
He said there must be clarity on how funds are budgeted, released, ring-fenced, and tracked, as well as how every naira is accounted for across ministries, departments, agencies, and states.
“Budgeting without release is not financing. Allocation without predictability is not reform. Nutrition must be protected. Every MDA must now account not just for figures on paper but for measurable changes in the lives of Nigerians,” he stated.
VP Shettima acknowledged that the burden of dismantling the maladies hindering Nigeria’s quest for a well-nourished nation is on the Council.
On the issue of nutrition legislation, the VP asked ministers who were formerly legislators to mobilise their counterparts to ensure that the bill sees the light of day.
Earlier, the Council received updated reports on the Food and Nutrition Security Preparedness Plan, Nutrition 774 Implementation Realities, as well as the Nutrition Bill.
In separate remarks, State governments represented by the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq; the Chairman of the Board of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), Muhammad Sanusi II, and the representatives of development partners including the Aliko Dangote Foundation and the UNICEF, among others, reiterated their commitment and support for all nutrition-focused projects at all levels in the country.