President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has launched the South-South zonal phase of the National Community Food Bank Programme in Cross River, with a renewed commitment to tackling food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable Nigerians.
The programme, launched in Calabar by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on Friday, targets children below six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers, with the provision of nutritious food to support healthy growth and development.
The South-South rollout covers Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Rivers states, and marks the fifth zonal launch of the national programme following similar launches in the North-East, North-West, North-Central and South-West zones.
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The First Lady said three community food banks were being launched simultaneously across Cross River’s three senatorial districts.
They are located at Ediba Primary Health Centre in Cross River South, MCH Ikom in Cross River Central, and MCH Ogoja in Cross River North.
According to her, the initiative is a deliberate and sustainable response to food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable households and aligns with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu, particularly in the areas of food security, healthcare and citizens’ welfare.
She urged governors in the South-South zone to establish community food banks in at least three senatorial districts of their respective states, working with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to provide the operational support needed to sustain the programme.
Mrs Tinubu said the nationwide rollout would be completed next week with the launch of the South-East phase in Anambra State.
She said the success of the programme would depend largely on the commitment of state governments to ensure that vulnerable families benefit from it.
Speaking at the launch, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, said the programme was critical to Nigeria’s human capital development, stressing that the country could not achieve sustainable prosperity without a well-nourished population.
Pate described nutrition as part of the country’s “grey matter infrastructure”, saying investment in the health and nutrition of children and women was as important as investment in physical infrastructure.
He said Nigeria, despite being richly endowed, continued to bear the burden of stunting and undernutrition among children and women.
According to him, the Federal Government’s economic reforms are creating the conditions for national growth, but the gains would not translate into sustainable development unless the country also invested in its people.
He therefore called on all South-South states to replicate the Cross River model and urged local governments to leverage primary healthcare infrastructure to deliver the programme.
Pate said the Federal Government would continue to mobilise resources for the initiative and ensure that vulnerable Nigerians receive both macronutrients and micronutrients.
Governor Bassey Otu said Cross River was prepared to complement the Federal Government’s intervention, noting that the state had already established functional food banks across its three senatorial districts.
Otu said his administration was also addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty through investments in agriculture and food production.
He listed a 50,000-hectare rice farming programme, a 20,000-hectare cassava farm cluster, support for fishermen and artisans, grants to farmers and agribusiness operators, as well as investments in small-holder farmer clusters.
He said the state’s Special Agro-Processing Zone would provide a ready market for farmers, while a proposed ₦70 billion public-private partnership investment programme would further strengthen the agricultural sector.
The governor said the food bank initiative would complement the state’s efforts to reduce hunger, improve livelihoods and strengthen food security.
The UNICEF representative at the event, Nemat Hajeebhoy, Chief of Nutrition, UNICEF, Nigeria (Abuja)
commended the Federal Government, Cross River State Government and the First Lady for prioritising food and nutrition security.
Hajeebhoy, who represented the Country Director, Dr Wafaa Saeed, said Cross River was an appropriate state for the South-South launch, having recorded a decline in malnutrition rates over the past five years.
She, however, warned that nutrition indicators remained a concern and called for stronger multi-sectoral coordination involving health, agriculture and social protection sectors.
She also stressed the importance of reliable data in measuring the impact of the programme, noting that interventions must be guided by accurate information.
The UNICEF representative reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to working with the Federal and state governments, development partners, private sector and communities to ensure that every Nigerian child has access to adequate nutrition.