According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), just two out of ten children in Katsina State between the ages of zero and six months, or 21.3%, are exclusively breastfed.
Eight out of every ten children in the state are at danger of malnutrition, according to UNICEF Nutrition Manager for Kano Field, Elhadji Diop, who made this announcement at a media discussion on exclusive breastfeeding on Wednesday.
The Katsina State Primary Healthcare Agency and UNICEF collaborated to organise the one-day media dialogue.
Diop asked the state government, media, and important stakeholders to redouble their efforts in order to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of 50% while citing the 2022 study performed by Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICs).
According to the research, which rated Nigeria first in Africa and second overall in the world for the prevalence of malnutrition, the situation in Nigeria is intolerable for the growth of infants, he said.
According to him, “With exclusive breastfeeding, a child is ensured of development and survival and without that a child is at risk of not being developed both mentally and physically.
“According to the 2022 MICs report, only two out of 10 children are exclusively breastfed in Katsina. With only two out 10 having a better chance of development and survival. It means eight out of 10 are at the risk of being malnourished, which is indeed unacceptable.”
While noting that exclusive breastfeeding would boost the health of the child and the mother, the UNICEF nutrition manager called on stakeholders to invest in exclusive breastfeeding “because 1,000 investment will generate approximately 35,000 economic returns”.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the state Primary Healthcare Agency, Dr. Shamsudeen Yahaya, represented by Tukur Bala, admonished practising journalists in the state to support the government’s quest of enhancing exclusive breastfeeding in the state.