The Federal government says Nigeria loses about fifty-six billion dollars annually to malnutrition.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu stated this at the end of a recent high-level dialogue in Abuja on the cost of inaction on malnutrition in Nigeria.
The minister, who was represented at the event by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Vitalis Obi, said malnutrition has an enormous economic cost estimated at fifty-six billion dollars annually, equivalent to 12.2% of Nigeria’s Gross National Income.
Stakeholders in nutrition who gathered at the event identified challenges such as inadequate funding, weak food systems, and climate change as major factors that promote malnutrition in Nigeria.
The stakeholders across all sectors resolved to synergise to ensure that food security and malnutrition policies, strategies, guidelines and tools are geared towards addressing malnutrition in all its forms by 2026.