Vice President Kashim Shettima has reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to tackling its nutrition challenges through a community-led approach designed to improve nutrition outcomes across the nation’s 774 local government areas (LGAs).
Meanwhile, the World Bank has praised the N-774 initiative’s strategic framework as a promising model for combating malnutrition within Nigeria and potentially across the broader region.
In a meeting on Tuesday with a high-level World Bank Group delegation at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, VP Shettima outlined the N-774 Initiative, which leverages successful results from the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project.
The Vice President, while recognizing the World Bank’s extensive support for nutrition programs throughout Nigeria, emphasized that the N-774 initiative is timely, aligning with the closeout of the ANRiN project.
He said, “The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is pioneering a paradigm shift in nutrition programmes through locally owned solutions. The N-774 Initiative represents our commitment to community-driven development and sustainable nutrition outcomes.”
The Vice President explained that the N-774 Initiative offers a localized, community-driven solution designed to address the specific needs of each LGA, delivering nutrition interventions directly to communities while promoting local ownership and ensuring long-term sustainability.
“Malnutrition is a Nigerian problem that needs a Nigerian solution and President Bola Tinubu is very much willing to support such an initiative,” he said, adding that the project integrates nutrition goals across education, agriculture, health and social protection sectors.
Shettima emphasised the importance of utilizing the current political momentum to address and improve the country’s negative nutrition indicators within the project implementation strategy.
“The Renewed Hope Administration is committed to swift, impactful results through this innovative approach to nutrition intervention.
“With sustained collaboration between the federal and subnational governments, and international partners, we are confident this initiative will yield significant improvements in our community health outcomes,” the Vice President stated.
The World Bank delegation—including the Country Director, Regional Director for West and Central Africa, and the Practice Manager for Health Global Practice—emphasized their strong commitment to the initiative’s grassroots approach to tackling nutrition challenges.
In particular, Ndiame Diop, the World Bank’s Country Director, expressed gratitude to the Vice President for his leadership in fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration and promoting nutrition issues in public discourse.
He further noted the importance of the Nigerian government’s continued investment in nutrition and announced that the bank has allocated $50 million through the ANRiN 2.0 program as part of its crisis response initiative.
Additionally, Trina Haque, the World Bank’s Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition, and Population, underscored the need for nutrition education for children and adolescents, highlighting its essential role in early child development.
