Nigeria allocated ₦170.01 billion to nutrition programmes in 2025, a 33.7 per cent increase from the ₦127.24 billion allocated in 2024. The rise follows a significant jump from ₦10.8 billion in 2021. The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), a coalition of over 400 civil society groups, media organisations, academics and development partners including the Gates Foundation, has been driving policy and funding reforms through its Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition Systems (PINNS) project. The project operates in Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Nasarawa and Lagos states, engaging state governments, lawmakers, traditional rulers and religious leaders to strengthen nutrition planning, budgeting and monitoring.
CS-SUNN has helped revive 24 previously inactive State Committees on Food and Nutrition. Digital accountability systems have been introduced to track progress in real time. Despite these efforts, funding for multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) remains insufficient or uncertain in many states. MMS is critical for addressing nutrient deficiencies in pregnant women, which contribute to Nigeria's high maternal mortality rate. The 2023 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey reports 512 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Nigeria ranks second globally for the number of stunted children under five, with 32–34 per cent — about 14 million — affected. Around two million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition. The National Development Plan (2021–2025) aims to reduce maternal mortality to 300 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2025. This aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals and the global "Zero Preventable Maternal Deaths" initiative, targeting 70 deaths per 100,000 by 2030. In Kaduna, all local government chairmen have agreed to contribute ₦20 million each to the Child Nutrition Fund, alongside a ₦500 million commitment from the state governor in 2024.
The same state officials now contributing ₦20 million each to child nutrition had remained inactive for years despite maternal deaths holding at 512 per 100,000 births. Their sudden financial commitment only emerged after community-level visibility of benefits, not from policy urgency. This suggests accountability in nutrition funding responds more to visibility than to human cost. Nigerian mothers have been dying at the same rate for years without triggering the same action.
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