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Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday inaugurated a Nutrition Financing Subcommittee to design a sustainable funding structure for Nigeria’s nutrition interventions, as part of renewed efforts to tackle malnutrition across the country.

The decision was taken during a virtual meeting of the National Council on Nutrition (NCN), chaired by the Vice President.

Shettima also called for the ring-fencing of nutrition financing to ensure that budgetary commitments translate into measurable improvements in the lives of Nigerians, stressing that the proposed National Nutrition Bill must be pursued with urgency.

According to a statement issued by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, the subcommittee, constituted by the Council, has been given 30 days to develop a comprehensive financing roadmap for Nigeria’s nutrition programmes.

The document will subsequently be presented to the National Council on Nutrition and the National Economic Council (NEC) for review and final adoption.

The committee will be chaired by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, and includes the Ministers of Education, Water Resources, Women Affairs, and Science and Technology.

Other members are the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, while the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning will serve as the secretariat.

Vice President Shettima also directed that development partners and private sector stakeholders be involved in the work of the committee, including the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

Disclosing the outcome of the meeting, Shettima said the Council recognised the need for a stronger legal and institutional framework to support coordination, financing and accountability across sectors involved in nutrition programmes.

“Council recognises the importance of establishing a strong legal and institutional framework to sustain coordination, financing, and accountability across sectors. Council therefore resolves that the National Nutrition Bill should be pursued with urgency,” the Vice President said.

He noted that the Council also resolved that budget allocations for nutrition interventions must be matched with timely releases and effective utilisation.

According to him, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must ensure that funds approved for nutrition-related programmes are promptly released and properly implemented.

Shettima emphasised that financing remains the most critical reform issue confronting Nigeria’s nutrition agenda.

“The central reform issue before us is financing, not as theory but as execution,” he said.

“Budgeting without release is not financing. Allocation without predictability is not reform. Nutrition must be protected. Every MDA must now account not just for figures on paper but for measurable changes in the lives of Nigerians.”

He also stressed the need for stronger systems to track and protect nutrition financing across government institutions.

“We must strengthen budget tagging, tracking and reforms to the chart of accounts so Nigerians can see real outcomes. Without ring-fencing nutrition financing, the gap between promises made and lives changed will continue to widen,” he added.

The Vice President further highlighted the importance of strengthening implementation at the subnational level, noting that nutrition outcomes are largely determined within households and communities.

He therefore urged state governors to fast-track actions needed to implement the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) 2.0 project, particularly in high-burden states.

“If our efforts are to succeed, they must not stop at the federal level. Nutrition outcomes are ultimately determined within households and communities,” Shettima said.

“This requires stronger subnational ownership and deeper grassroots engagement, ensuring that states, local governments, community leaders and frontline workers play their full role in implementation.”

The Council also resolved that women must remain at the centre of national nutrition strategies, given their central role in household nutrition, childcare and food systems.

According to the Vice President, women’s voices and leadership must be fully integrated into planning, decision-making and programme delivery across the country.

“Our collective responsibility is to ensure that the policies and commitments we make here translate into real improvements in homes and communities across all 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria,” he said.

The Council also received updates on several ongoing initiatives, including the Food and Nutrition Security Preparedness Plan, the Nutrition 774 Implementation Realities, and the proposed National Nutrition Bill.

It was informed that State Councils on Nutrition have already been inaugurated in nine states — Abia, Adamawa, Borno, Cross River, Jigawa, Plateau, Rivers, Yobe and Zamfara — with plans underway to expand the initiative to other states.

Participants at the meeting, including representatives of state governments, development partners and civil society organisations, reaffirmed their commitment to supporting nutrition interventions across the country.

Among those who spoke were the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the Chairman of the Board of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Muhammad Sanusi II, as well as representatives of development partners including UNICEF and the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

The Council was also briefed on the national nutrition budgeting outlook, which highlighted progress made so far and existing funding gaps across ministries, departments, agencies and subnational governments.

The report identified priority actions including sustained reform initiatives across all tiers of government, consolidation of national scale-up efforts under the ANRiN 2.0 programme, and regular reporting of progress to the National Council on Nutrition for enhanced oversight.

Also speaking at the meeting, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, recommended the creation of a sustainable financing structure to support the Federal Government’s nutrition drive.