The Fund said it would take N10,860 to prevent a child from being malnourished but cost N99,636 to treat a malnourished child.
UNICEF on Wednesday urged states in Nigeria to urgently provide their counterpart funding to access Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) and save about nine million children from malnutrition.
“Without urgent action in 2024, UNICEF estimates that approximately nine million children under five years will suffer from moderate and acute malnutrition,” Mr Prosper Dakurah, Nutrition Manager at UNICEF, said in Lagos.
Dakurah spoke at a partnership meeting between UNICEF, the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
Dakurah said that states such as Katsina, Jigawa and Plateau had made their funding, adding that Adamawa, Ebonyi and Gombe had made commitments toward it.
He called on states yet to pay or sign a memorandum of understanding in that regard to hasten the payment in the interest of the Nigerian child.
Dakurah said that UNICEF would match any state’s counterpart fund by the CNF, adding, “You pay one dollar, you get an additional dollar from CNF.”
Dakurah added that it would take N10,860 or 15 dollars to prevent a child from being malnourished but would cost N99,636 or 140 dollars to treat a malnourished child.
According to the official, if left untreated, children with severe acute malnutrition are nearly 12 times more likely to die than a healthy child.
The CNF is a new financing mechanism designed to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child wasting.
It is designed to support government-led efforts in some of the countries that have the highest proportion of children under five years of age with wasting.
(NAN)
