Vice President Kashim Shettima has said the Federal Government will accelerate work on a National Food and Nutrition Bill to protect nutrition funding, strengthen accountability and sustain interventions beyond successive administrations. Shettima disclosed this while speaking at the Nigeria-Ethiopia Nutrition Leadership Exchange Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he outlined Nigeria’s plans to tackle malnutrition. […]
Vice President Kashim Shettima has said the Federal Government will accelerate work on a National Food and Nutrition Bill to protect nutrition funding, strengthen accountability and sustain interventions beyond successive administrations.
Shettima disclosed this while speaking at the Nigeria-Ethiopia Nutrition Leadership Exchange Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he outlined Nigeria’s plans to tackle malnutrition.
He said the proposed legislation would strengthen the government’s Nutrition 774 Initiative and create a stronger framework for cooperation among the federal, state and local governments in addressing malnutrition from the community level.
According to Shettima, Nigeria’s National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035 targets a reduction in the country’s stunting rate to 32 per cent by 2029, 28 per cent by 2032 and 25 per cent by 2035.
He noted that nutrition committees had already been established in 32 State Houses of Assembly, while similar committees had been created in more than 450 local governments.
“We are convinced that, with nutrition committees in 32 state assemblies, there is no better time for us to accelerate the development of a National Food and Nutrition Bill and the advancement of a federal, state and local compact to protect financing and enforce accountability beyond administrations,” Shettima said.
The Vice President explained that the Nutrition 774 Initiative provides a unified framework bringing together all tiers of government, with governors and local government chairpersons expected to lead implementation within their jurisdictions.
“Each council, being the lowest tier of our system, is our unit of planning, financing and accountability,” he said, adding that the government was working with states on costed plans covering health, agriculture, social protection, water, sanitation, hygiene and education.
Shettima also disclosed that Nigeria’s $26 million commitment to the Child Nutrition Fund had attracted matching support, bringing the total to $52 million. He added that 21 states had contributed $6.3 million since 2023 towards supplies for preventing and treating malnutrition.
He said the proposed Presidential Nutrition Investment Fund would provide catalytic financing, while the Nutrition Financing Subcommittee was working to mobilise additional domestic resources.
“We can only claim that our budget fulfils its purpose when it nourishes a child,” Shettima said, explaining that the government was working to link public spending with measurable nutrition outcomes through scorecards and stronger domestic financing.
The Vice President said the urgency of the intervention was underscored by the reported impact of stunting on Nigerian children under five and the estimated annual economic cost of undernutrition.
“We act to protect learning. We act to preserve earnings. We act to project productivity,” he added.
Shettima said the government was also engaging food vendors, small and medium enterprises, manufacturers, financiers and regulators to improve the availability and affordability of nutritious food.
He added that Nigeria was working with industry and regulators to strengthen compliance with food fortification requirements covering salt, flour, edible oil and sugar.
Shettima also announced that Nigeria and Ethiopia would work towards a joint statement outlining continued cooperation between both countries on nutrition, declaring that the two nations owed Africa “an example worthy of its children.”
The forum also provided an opportunity for Nigeria and Ethiopia to discuss broader bilateral relations, with Shettima and Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Temesgen Tiruneh reviewing opportunities for cooperation in trade, investment, food security, aviation and security.
Tiruneh welcomed Nigeria’s interest in Ethiopia’s nutrition experience and said sustained political leadership, financing and accountability were necessary to improve nutrition outcomes.
He said more than 100,000 Ethiopian children had been protected from malnutrition through community mobilisation and improvements in the nutritional value of food.
Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr. Mekdes Daba, highlighted her country’s Seqota Declaration, a national commitment aimed at ending child stunting by 2030, and stressed the importance of nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
She said poor nutrition could affect brain development, school performance, future earnings and national economic progress, describing investment in early childhood nutrition as one of the most important investments a country could make.
The Nigerian delegation, which included governors and ministers, pledged to strengthen the country’s nutrition value chain through greater investment in technology, financing, education and food systems.
At their bilateral meeting, Shettima and Tiruneh also discussed the Nigeria-Ethiopia Joint Commission, the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement, private-sector cooperation and the need to deepen investment, agriculture, economic development and security ties between both countries.