ECONOMY
The Federal Government has commenced moves to attain the top 70 in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking by 2023 with the adoption of National Action Plan 6.0 (NAP 6.0), as well as reduce malnutrition in Nigeria by 50 percent in the next five years.
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed this yesterday at the meetings of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) where NAP 6.0 was adopted and the National Council on Nutrition, both held in Abuja.
Recall that in 2019, Nigeria rose 15 places on the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business Index to rank 131, from 146th in the previous year, and up 39 places since 2016 when PEBEC was established.
Nigeria: National Council On Nutrition Approves 5-Year Plan to Reduce Hunger, Malnutrition allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Osinbajo’s spokesman,
Laolu Akande, in a statement, said the approval was in an effort to further improve the wellbeing of citizens. Membership of the council include Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum(NGF), the ministers of health and water resources, as well as the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning. Others are the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, development partners, organised private sector, Civil Society Organisations and the former Emir of Kano,
Sanusi Lamido. The plan is targeted at reducing the proportion of people who suffer malnutrition by 50 per cent, and increase exclusive breastfeeding rate to 65 per cent.
The Plan
The plan will reduce the proportion of people who suffer malnutrition by 50% and increase exclusive breastfeeding rate to 65%.
It will also reduce stunting rate among under-five year olds to 18% by 2025 through the scaling up of priority high impact nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
The plan recommends the adoption and implementation of strategies aimed at improving the nutritional status of Nigerians by tackling under nutrition and stunting, among others.
The vice president welcomed suggestions for the adoption of extensive nutrition advocacy programmes to be driven by stakeholders across all levels of government and the private sector.
The NGF Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said his colleagues have endorsed the plan. He added that taking the advocacy campaign to the state governors will be a crucial part of ending malnutrition in the country.