The Aliko Dangote Foundation has pledged to invest $100 Million over a five-year period to tackle malnutrition problem in the worst-affected parts of Nigeria.
This is to help reduce the prevalence of undernutrition by 60% in the neediest areas North East and North west.
The pledge was a major highlight during the recently concluded Global Nutrition Summit 2017 held in Milan, Italy, convened for governments, international agencies, foundations, civil society organizations and businesses to accelerate the global response to malnutrition which is believed to be the underlying cause of nearly half of all global child deaths.
The organizers gave the basis for the summit on the fact that malnutrition has been said to affect every country in the world in various forms, but Africa is particularly hit and Nigeria is home to the highest number of malnourished children, the foundation said.
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Kofi Annan while speaking at the summit said tackling under-nutrition is possible with targeted commitments, like those made by Dangote Foundation.
The Global Nutrition Report 2017, launched at the Summit, showed that in spite of the progress made in tackling malnutrition, 155 million children globally are still stunted.
2.5 Million children in Nigeria under the age of 5 are malnourished and this figure places Nigeria as the third largest country with chronically undernourished children globally.
According to statistics from the National Nutritional Survey, 11.9 % of children in the North are malnourished and 9.5 % of them died.
On June 11, 2017, it was reported that 134,000 children in the North-East died due to malnutrition while 500,000 children would be lost to Severe Acute Malnutrition nationwide if it is not properly addressed.
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