• Survey indicates high ANC attendance
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SSUNN) has unveiled a study indicating major progress in the federal government’s efforts to improve maternal and child’s health indices across the country.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at the presentation of the CS-SUNN report on the Anaemia situation in Nigeria, a member of the research team, Prof. Kola Matthews Anigo said there is a key progress in sensitizing pregnant women to accept Multiple Nutrient Supplements (MMS) to boost their health and that of their children.
He said the report showed that 92 percent of these pregnant women in 21 states that participated in the study indicated their willingness to take the multiple micronutrient supplements.
According to Anigo, the report was the outcome of the formative study on Anaemia Funding Commitment through the Child Nutrition Fund and MMS Uptake to address the issue of anemia, especially children and pregnant women in Nigeria.
According to the health expert, the reports also indicated that 90 percent of our mothers actually attend antenatal care.
However, he said that while the WHO recommended that a pregnant woman is expected in the course of pregnancy to have at least eight ANC contacts, only about 23 percent of the women actually had that eight contacts as recommended.
“Also positive is the fact that 92 percent of these pregnant women that participated in the study indicated that 92 percent are willing to take the multiple micronutrient supplements,” he said.
Regarding efforts at mobilizing domestic funding, especially as it concerns the subnational, Anigo said that out of the 21 states visited, 16 of them actually indicated interest in contributing to the Child Nutrition Fund, which is a fund through which UNICEF Is partnering with the governments of Nigeria to provide counterpart fund for the implementation of nutrition intervention programme.
On the accessibility of MMS commodity, the health expert said that every pregnant woman that visits hospitals for antenatal care (ANC) are supposed to be given MMS.
“It’s a national policy of Nigeria. But now the issue is that, like the outcome of this study also shows, that there are cases of stockout of MMS,” he said.
Prof. Amigo also said that because the MMS is just being introduced; it’s now being integrated into the ANC standard of care, adding that and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through the Nutrition Department, have developed a roadmap for its integration into the standard of care.
He said that rollout plan now is to ensure that after the year 2030, all women will have access to MMS.
Earlier in his remarks, the CS-SUNN Communication and Campaign Manager, Mr. Peters Olusola said the study was conducted across 21 states of the country was carried out by the Academic and Research Network Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria in collaboration with CS-SUNN and supported by the UNICEF.
He said that the study was designed to answer practical questions that matter for policy and implementation,
Olusola also said that the study sought to find out the status of funding commitment and accompanying releases as well as the impact of CS-SUNN intervention in the benefiting states.
Also, the Director and Head of Nutrition in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Mrs. Adegbite Olufumilola urged authorities at the state and local government levels to contribute more to the funding of nutrition programmes in their various areas.