•Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF)
Governors of the 36 states of the federation have resolved to declare nutrition a national emergency and establish a National Nutrition Intervention Fund as part of far-reaching measures to tackle hunger and malnutrition across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
The governors also committed to adopting a unified national nutrition budgeting framework, strengthening domestic financing, and introducing grassroots accountability mechanisms to ensure government investments translate into measurable improvements in Nigerians’ nutritional status.
The resolutions were announced yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, who presented the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Addis Ababa Commitment on Nutrition at the Nigeria Country Session of the Nigeria-Ethiopia Nutrition Leadership Exchange.
The commitments followed a three-day exchange programme attended by a high-level Nigerian delegation led by Vice President Kashim Shettima, during which participants studied Ethiopia’s experience in combating malnutrition, particularly through its Seqota Declaration.
According to a statement issued today by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, the governors agreed to introduce funding and institutional mechanisms to accelerate implementation of Nigeria’s Nutrition 774 Initiative.
Speaking at the session themed “From Lessons to Commitment: Accelerating Implementation of the Nutrition 774 Initiative”, Lawal said the governors had recognised the need for sustained political leadership, effective coordination among government institutions, predictable financing and data-driven accountability to achieve meaningful results.
He explained that the proposed National Nutrition Intervention Fund would finance greater state investment, reward effective programme implementation, and support measurable improvements in nutrition outcomes.
The governors also resolved to institutionalise the principle of “One Goal, One Plan and One Budget” to eliminate fragmented nutrition interventions and ensure federal, state, and local governments pursue common objectives under a coordinated financing and implementation framework.
Lawal said the leadership exchange had demonstrated the importance of aligning political commitments with practical implementation strategies, particularly through community-driven planning and sustained financial investment.
“We are encouraged that Nigeria’s N774 Initiative already embodies many of the principles we have seen here in Ethiopia”, he said.
He identified unified planning and budgeting, stronger multisectoral coordination, bottom-up planning, predictable financing and performance measurement as critical lessons Nigeria intends to adopt.
The Zamfara governor said matching financing arrangements between the Federal Government and states would give subnational governments additional incentives to increase investments in nutrition while strengthening their responsibility for delivering results.
He recalled that the three tiers of government signed a National Nutrition Compact on February 20, 2025, in the presence of Vice President Shettima, establishing a common framework to address the country’s malnutrition challenges.
According to him, the compact was signed by the Chairman of the NGF on behalf of the 36 states, the President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) on behalf of the 774 local governments and the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning representing the federal government.
Lawal explained that the Addis Ababa commitments would strengthen the existing agreement by incorporating practical lessons from Ethiopia’s experience and translating them into specific actions across the three tiers of government.
As part of the measures, the governors pledged to ensure that communities and wards set nutrition priorities before local, state, and national development plans incorporate them.
They also agreed to expand the National Nutrition Scorecard beyond the state level to capture performance indicators at local government and ward levels, creating a system to track the effectiveness of nutrition interventions at the grassroots.
The governors further committed to institutionalising regular surveys, assessments and other data-gathering mechanisms to guide resource allocation, monitor implementation and identify areas requiring corrective action.
Meanwhile, the federal government has announced plans to commence targeted nutrition interventions in two states with a high burden of childhood stunting before progressively extending the programme to other parts of the country.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Muyi Aina, disclosed this while presenting the commitments of federal agencies participating in the exchange programme.
Aina said the government would adopt a focused implementation strategy that selects two states based on their stunting burden, sets clear objectives, and introduces coordinated interventions to address the underlying causes of malnutrition.
He explained that relevant federal ministries and agencies would collaborate with the affected governors and their teams to identify priority interventions, assign responsibilities, and determine implementation costs.
According to him, the participating governments would work towards joint financing arrangements while involving communities and development partners in designing and executing the programmes.
Aina said the federal delegation had drawn significant lessons from Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation, early childhood development programmes and data-driven interventions, particularly the importance of disciplined execution and rigorous performance monitoring.
“We will track progress in the execution of the plan very rigorously”, he said.
He proposed three-month, six-month, and nine-month implementation reviews involving Vice President Shettima, who chairs the National Council on Nutrition.
He explained that the proposed reviews would enable the government to assess progress, address implementation challenges and determine when successful interventions could be extended to other states.
Aina maintained that focusing initial efforts on two high-burden states would enable the government to generate practical evidence, improve implementation approaches, and direct resources to interventions that produce measurable results.
Also speaking, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said Nigeria’s response to malnutrition must move beyond political declarations to clearly defined programmes supported by measurable performance indicators.
Pate said the leadership exchange had reinforced the importance of focused sectoral interventions, clear implementation roadmaps, performance matrices and institutional accountability.
He assured that the federal government would collaborate with states to translate the Addis Ababa commitments into practical programmes, with implementation reports submitted to the Vice President through the National Council on Nutrition.
The minister stressed that combined efforts by federal and state governments, communities, and development partners would be essential to achieving sustainable improvements in nutrition outcomes.
He expressed confidence that Nigeria could adapt Ethiopia’s experience to its peculiar circumstances, noting that the East African country’s progress demonstrated the benefits of sustained political leadership and effective coordination.
Pate also commended the Ethiopian government for hosting the Nigerian delegation and invited Ethiopian officials to visit Nigeria to study its ongoing programmes and explore further areas of collaboration.
In her remarks, Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr Mekdes Daba, praised Nigeria’s commitment to tackling malnutrition and described the leadership exchange as an important example of African countries drawing lessons from one another to address common development challenges.
Daba particularly commended Vice President Shettima for leading the high-level delegation, saying the visit reflected Nigeria’s determination to move from policy commitments to practical action.
She described the Nutrition 774 Initiative as a significant national undertaking and urged Nigerian authorities to prioritise focused interventions, continuous monitoring and the gradual expansion of programmes that demonstrate measurable success.
The Ethiopian minister emphasised that nutrition policies must ultimately be judged by tangible improvements in citizens’ lives, not by the number of commitments governments make.
She assured the Nigerian delegation of Ethiopia’s readiness to provide technical assistance and share implementation experiences as Nigeria advances its nutrition agenda.
Daba expressed optimism that the exchange would mark the start of a sustained partnership between the two countries, showing how African governments could use homegrown solutions and shared experience to tackle malnutrition and improve public health outcomes.
