The Japan International Cooperation Agency has launched a school-based nutrition intervention in Abuja aimed at improving dietary habits among adolescents and drawing attention to the long-term consequences of poor nutrition for Nigeria’s future workforce.
The initiative was unveiled at Junior Secondary School, Area 10, Garki, where JICA officials said adolescence remained a critical but frequently overlooked stage of physical development.
JICA Nigeria Programme Coordinator for Nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Environment, Climate Change and ODA Loans, Princess Kelechi Barry-Chukwu, said the intervention was designed to help schools shape what students eat, how they make food choices and how they understand healthy lifestyles.
She cited figures indicating that about 31 per cent of Nigerian adolescents aged 10 to 19 are thin or underweight. Adolescent girls were described as especially vulnerable, with acute malnutrition reportedly occurring at more than four times the rate seen among adult women, while around 55 per cent were said to suffer from anaemia.
Barry-Chukwu said the adolescent years are the second-fastest phase of human growth after early childhood and therefore require greater policy attention if Nigeria hopes to build a healthier and more productive adult population.
The programme is expected to run until January and will encourage participating schools to establish nutrition clubs and gardens, train teachers to pay closer attention to students’ food and lifestyle choices and involve parents more actively in nutrition education.
Practical activities will include food and cooking demonstrations, debates, fruit challenges and lunchbox challenges intended to make healthy eating more accessible and engaging.
Barry-Chukwu said nutrition should be integrated into routine school life rather than treated as an occasional topic discussed only at home.
At the school, Home Economics teacher and JICA Desk Officer, Simiat Jumoke-Salau, said the intervention would seek to move students away from heavy reliance on biscuits, sugary drinks and other highly processed snacks towards greater consumption of fruits and vegetables.
She argued that schools have significant influence because many children spend most of their waking hours in the education environment. She also raised concern that changes to the junior secondary curriculum had reduced attention to Home Economics and nutrition-related learning in some settings.
Deputy Director at the Agricultural Research and Development Secretariat of the FCT Administration, Ude Ekele, supported the development of school gardens as a practical way to connect nutrition education with food production.
The FCT Universal Basic Education Board also backed the pilot, with officials saying lessons from the programme should be shared with school administrators and monitored to determine whether the intervention produces measurable changes in behavior and health awareness.
