Funding of the Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) has continued to decline in Bauchi State even as more children are left vulnerable to acute malnutrition that has ravaged the state before the intervention of the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Between January and July alone, at least 10 children have died of acute malnutrition, and the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centres set up by UNICEF were out of stock.

The health centres in Bauchi State have been frequently out of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) due to lack of funds. But many parents accuse the state government of misplaced priorities because of the little importance it places on children’s lives.

In Bauchi, malnourished children are constantly at greater risk, especially now that the state government shows less commitment to CMAM. Under the health centres, children who are six months to five years old suffering from acute malnutrition are given RUTF for about two months. The pilot programme of the community-based management of acute malnutrition was introduced in Nigeria in 2009 by United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 12 northern states, where the scourge has remained endemic.

The governments of the affected states are meant to support UNICEF intervention with counterpart funding. But despite the large budgetary allocations earmarked for RUTF by the Bauchi government, only a paltry amount is being released for its procurement.

A breakdown of the releases obtained from the Bauchi State Primary HealthCare Development Agency (BSPHDA) showed that only N20 million was released out of the N400 million naira budgeted for RUTF in 2020. That is a meagre five per cent of the expected funding.

According to UNICEF, only 890 cartons of RUTF were procured with N20 million by the state government, while 2,387 cartons were provided by the agency at the cost of N54 million. The Nation