Over 17 Million Nigerians Are Hungry – Expert
Experts have said that about 17.7 million people are hungry in Nigeria and about one million people suffer from acute food insecurity.
According to the 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) with a score of 28.3, Nigeria has a level of hunger that is serious.
Nigeria ranks first in Africa on malnourishment and second in the world in the malnutrition chart.
NAN reports that a UNICEF Nutrition Officer, Ms Nkeiru Enwelum, while speaking at media dialogue on the ‘Nutrition in Nigeria: An Overview of Malnutrition In Nigeria And Its Impacts On Children’, disclosed that states with the highest number of people suffering from food insecurity in Nigeria are Kano and Lagos.
“The states with the highest number of people suffering from food insecurity in Nigeria are Kano and Lagos.
“In spite of the fact that Kano, Borno, Katsina and Lagos rank high in the food insecurity ladder, malnutrition is widespread in the country, affecting people living in other parts of the country”, Enwelum explained.
She also said that most of the burden of malnutrition, for both stunting and wasting, lies in the northern part of the country, where one in two children is stunted.
Wasting is a condition in which a child is too thin for his or her height and as a result of recent rapid weight loss or failure to gain weight.
“Some of the diseases or resultant body malfunctions arising from malnutrition are micro nutrient deficiency, anemia, rickets and vitamin A deficiency.
“As we can see, Nigeria is off track to achieve most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Two nutrition targets.
NAN also reports that she described stunting to be a form of malnutrition which occurs when a child has low height for his age and that it was a form of malnutrition referred to as chronic malnutrition because it happens over a long period of time.
She also said stunting could contribute to developmental delays and impair cognitive development.
The nutrition officer said malnutrition can affect academic performance and productivity of a child up until adulthood.
