Bukola Afeni
The Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, has emphasized the urgent need to confront malnutrition in Nigeria, describing it as a critical barrier to national development.
Hadejia made this known during a high-level engagement on the Nutrition 774 initiative, an alignment workshop with the National Executive Council of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON NEC), held in Niger State.
The Nutrition 774 initiative is a flagship program under the Office of the Vice President.
It was officially launched on February 20, 2025, by His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
As part of the launch, a High-Level Strategic Board for the initiative was also inaugurated to guide its implementation and oversight.
Hadejia noted that sustainable growth is unattainable when a significant segment of the country’s future workforce lacks access to adequate nutrition.
He explained that the Nutrition 774 initiative is a strategic grassroots intervention targeting all 774 local government areas (LGAs) nationwide.
The program aims to transform each local council into a hub of coordinated action against malnutrition, leveraging multi-sectoral collaboration and local governance to institutionalize nutrition-focused policies and implementation frameworks.
“Towards sustainable human development, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the N774 initiative adheres to a fundamental principle: development is most meaningful when it begins at the grassroots,” Hadejia stated.
“This program was conceived as a response to one of the gravest, yet least visible, challenges confronting our country, which is malnutrition.”
He described malnutrition not only as a health issue but as a multi-dimensional crisis affecting education, economic growth, and national security.
“The facts are sobering: over 40% of Nigerian children under the age of five are stunted, with severe consequences for cognitive development and future productivity,” he said. “We cannot and must not ignore this stark reality. Our economy cannot thrive when a significant portion of its future workforce is denied the foundational right to adequate nutrition.”
Hadejia emphasized the need for localized solutions, noting that if malnutrition is most severe at the grassroots level, then the solutions must be rooted there as well.
He called on local government leaders to take ownership of the initiative, stressing the importance of establishing local food and nutrition committees, allocating resources that reflect the urgency of the crisis, and fostering collaboration across sectors such as health, agriculture, education, social welfare, and economic development.
“This meeting is an opportunity to align strategies ahead of upcoming state-level advocacy sessions. We must approach them with one voice, one plan, and a unified accountability framework,” he said.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Sampson Ebimaro, reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to strengthening coordination of food and nutrition interventions across all sectors and levels of governance in Nigeria.
Dr. Ebimaro stated that the Ministry remains dedicated to ensuring effective collaboration between national and sub-national actors to tackle malnutrition in a sustainable and structured manner.
He highlighted that since the launch of the N774 initiative, the Ministry has spearheaded a series of engagements with key stakeholders, including the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the Office of the Vice President, to facilitate seamless implementation of the framework at the grassroots level.
The Program Manager at the Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Ridwan Awosanya, expressed the organization’s commitment to supporting the Nutrition 774 initiative.
He emphasized the need for the media to spotlight the essence, strategic pillars, and implementation mechanisms of the initiative, particularly its grassroots operations.
According to him, the initiative goes beyond diagnosing the malnutrition crisis to implementing practical, multisectoral solutions that will improve food supply chains and nutrition outcomes.
“This is not just a campaign, it’s a coordinated program involving federal and state line ministries such as Budget and Economic Planning, Health, Information, Education, and Agriculture,” Awosanya said.
“It also includes key development partners like UNICEF, Nutrition International, and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.”
He urged media practitioners to become nutrition advocate by providing meaningful solution to the malnutrition issues in the country.
The Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF Nigeria, Nemat Hajeebhoy, while delivering her presentation, called on the National Executive Council of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON NEC) to take leading role in advancing the Nutrition 774 initiative across all local government areas.
According to Hajeebhoy, across 26 states and the FCT, about 31 million people are currently food insecure, with projections suggesting that this figure could rise to 40 million nationwide. “Furthermore, two out of every three children in Nigeria face child food poverty, lacking the basic dietary diversity necessary for healthy growth.”
She urged the council to ensure sustained and predictable financing, prioritize planning and implementation at the local level, and mobilize strong community engagement to drive lasting and impactful change in the fight against malnutrition.
