The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has described the rate at which malnutrition is spreading across Nigeria has alarming and called for steps to be taken to curb the growth.
This was made known by the Director, USAID Mission, Anne Patterson at the Trade Fair for Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods and Other Life-saving Nutrition Commodities in Abuja on Wednesday.
The agency rated Nigeria as the second country in the world that is worst hit by malnutrition which showed how much the country is getting hit by the problem.
She cited the most recent Food Consumption and Micronutrients Survey in 2021 as she explained that severe malnutrition in Nigerian children increased from seven per cent to 12 per cent over the last five years.
She said “This means Nigeria is the second country with the most prevalent malnutrition. Only 2.8 per cent of those children were treated with ready-to-use therapeutic foods, also known as RUTF, in the past 12 months.
“These are alarming figures. Fortunately, local procurement of RUTF is available with producers like Ariel Foods, Emzor-Foods, DABS and Nutri-K.”
Patterson added that the United States government is eager to strengthen ties with private sector firms that are addressing malnutrition in the country.
“For example, just last week, USAID entered into a partnership with Emzor Food and Beverages to build a medical-grade groundnut paste processing facility.”
