Bauchi State and UNICEF have jointly committed N600 million, split equally between the two partners, to procure nutrition commodities for children and mothers in the state, with Bauchi becoming the first state in Nigeria to use its own funds to purchase Small Quantity Lipid-based Nutrient Supplements for the prevention of malnutrition, a distinction state health officials described as a model other states should consider replicating.
Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board Executive Chairman Dr. Rilwanu Muhammad said the malnutrition the state was seeing was driven not only by poverty but by inflation that had made nutritious food unaffordable for families that had previously managed adequately. He said the state had already distributed 4,842 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food and 15,000 cartons of SQLNS to Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition centers, with approximately 15 million UNICEF-supported doses reaching high-risk communities.
He said Bauchi was also the first state to roll out Multiple Micronutrient Supplements for pregnant women, having received 30,000 cartons with another shipment already at the port. He said mothers were responding positively to MMS, actively requesting the supplements because of the visible benefits for both maternal health and infant development.
Governor Bala Mohammed has increased this year’s budgetary allocation for child and maternal nutrition to N500 million while UNICEF indicated it would commit $1 billion for the program nationally. The board said it was pushing for MMS to be included in the essential drug list to improve long-term sustainability, and that electronic tracking systems had been deployed to monitor commodity distribution and usage at facility level.
