The country head of the Eat safe Programme in Nigeria, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Dr. Augustine Okoruwa, has disclosed that with stakeholder’s collaborations, the programme, which is designed to ensure food safety in Kebbi State, will correct the reported statistic of 66.1 percentage of children with malnutrition and protein deficiencies in the state.

Okoruwa, who stated this in Birnin kebbi while briefing newsmen after a meeting with stakeholders on the programme, noted that the Eat safe programme was directly targeted at malnourished and protein deficient children and infants in Northern Nigeria. He noted that the activities of the programme, seek to ensure the delivery of safe food crops containing all the right food nutrients to food vendors in the markets.

“This project will also focus on stunted children below 3 years old. According to a 2018 survey, Kebbi state has the highest number of stunted children with stunting rate of 66.1%. This is very alarming, and it is a cause for concern.”

Dr. Augustine further stated that: “we are working in tandem with other agricultural and non-governmental nutrition organisations to reduce the level of stunting and malnutrition, which has plagued the Kebbi state indigenes for far too long.”

“The States in northern Nigeria are the most affected by the two forms of malnutrition – stunting and wasting. High rates of malnutrition pose significant public health and development challenges for the country. Stunting, in addition to an increased risk of death, is also linked to poor cognitive development, a lowered performance in education and low productivity in adulthood – all contributing to economic losses estimated to account for as much as 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” Daily Sun, Pg. 12.