By Mercy Sawok
Stakeholders in nutrition have called for increased domestic financing, improved accountability and wider access to Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) to accelerate efforts towards reducing the high burden of anaemia in Nigeria.
They made the call at a webinar organised by Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), with the theme, “Investing in anaemia prevention: financing healthier mothers, stronger families and a more productive Nigeria.”
Prosper Dakura, Nutrition Manager, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, said anaemia remained a major public health challenge, affecting women, children and men, with multiple nutritional and non-nutritional causes.
Dakura said data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey showed that 58 per cent of women of reproductive age and 68 per cent of pregnant women were anaemic.
He said anaemia was not caused by iron deficiency alone, noting that folate, vitamin B12, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies, malaria, helminth infections and genetic blood disorders such as sickle cell also contributed.
According to him, Nigeria has several policies addressing anaemia, including the National Policy on Food and Nutrition, National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition and National Guidelines for the Control of Micronutrient Deficiencies.
He said the government had also approved the transition from Iron-Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation to MMS for pregnant women.
Dakura said tackling anaemia required a multi-sectoral approach involving dietary diversification, food fortification, MMS for pregnant women, IFA for adolescent girls, malaria prevention, deworming and improved water, sanitation and hygiene.
Prof. Kola Anigo, National Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition Academic-Research Network (ARN-SUNN), identified four major evidence gaps affecting anaemia prevention.
They include: financing information, accountability and verification, costing and investment, and financing-to-results.
He said nutrition funding was often embedded in broader health budgets, making it difficult to establish the exact funds allocated, released and spent on anaemia prevention.
Anigo added that only 42.3 per cent of programme officers reported access to financial or audit reports on Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) expenditure.
He called for better evidence linking investments to commodity procurement, coverage, adherence and measurable maternal and anaemia outcomes.
Mrs Olufunmilola Adebiyi, Director and Head of Nutrition, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said efforts were ongoing to integrate MMS into state annual operational plans and matching-fund mechanisms.
She said the ministry was also using prioritisation tools to identify high-burden Local Government Areas and direct resources to areas with greater need, while strengthening delivery through routine primary healthcare and antenatal care.
Sunday Okoronkwo, Executive Secretary, CS-SUNN, said the webinar had exposed gaps in financing and procurement, noting that Nigeria needed close to six million bottles of MMS to meet identified gaps for the year and beyond.
He said the fact that procurement of MMS was still not prioritised in many state budgets showed the urgency of the discussion.
Okoronkwo urged government actors to implement the recommendations while CSOs provided technical support, stressing the need to translate nutrition funding into actual procurement and availability of commodities.
He said stakeholders must continually ask whether Nigeria was investing enough, investing sustainably and translating investments into results for women, children, families and communities.
Participants at the webinar shared their experiences with MMS during pregnancy, while also highlighting challenges with availability.
They reported that MMS helped them stay active, experience less fatigue, and feel more energised throughout pregnancy compared to previous pregnancies when they took routine IFA supplements.
They called for increased production, wider distribution, and targeted outreach to women missing out on facility-based antenatal care, urging stakeholders to boost MMS availability in pharmacies and primary healthcare centers.(NAN)
Edited by Folasade Akpan