From right: Executive Secretary of
National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammed;
Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State; Governor of Zamfara State,
AbdulAziz Yari; Co-Chairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill
Gates; President of Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Minister
of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole; and the representative of UNICEF,
shortly after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on routine
immunisation between Katsina and Zamfara st.The Dangote Foundation and Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation yesterday announced a combined commitment of
$100 million towards ending under nutrition in Nigeria.
The commitment was announced by Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates
yesterday at a press conference in Abuja.
It hopes to improve the lives of at least
five million families by 2020.
Alhaji Dangote said Nigeria is home to the highest number of stunted
children in Africa and the second highest globally.
Besides, he said almost one in five Nigerian children is acutely
malnourished and more than one in three children suffer from stunting.
Alhaji Dangote also observed that, the North East and the North West
with 23 percent of malnourished children is the biggest hit and would
naturally benefit more than the other regions that has 11 percent
prevalence rate.
He observed that about 11 million Nigerian children are malnourished
while 1.5 million have suffered stunted growth.
“In the spirit of our new partnership, we encourage even more deliberate
and significant commitments from the Government of Nigeria at all
levels to step up investments in nutrition,” he said.
Also commenting, Bill Gates said “nutrition is one of the highest impact
investments we can make in Nigeria’s future growth and prosperity. We
know that well-nourished children are more likely to grow up to be
healthy, fend off preventable diseases, achieve more in school and even
earn higher income as adults.”
According to him, “the partnership builds on our foundation’s strong
commitment to Nigeria - one of several countries where we are working
closely with the government, the private sector and civil society to
improve health and development outcomes.”
The two foundations said they will begin a joint planning process to
determine the details of the partnership to include community-based
approaches and proven interventions linked to behaviour change,
fortification of staple foods with essential micronutrients, the
community management of acute malnutrition and investments in the local
production of nutritious foods.
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