…Govt Set to Open Ogun River Bridge
The Oyo State government has achieved 58.7 per cent in the practice of exclusive breastfeeding by women of child bearing age.
Revealing this on Thursday, the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria, ANRiN, stated said the increase shows Pregnant and Lactating women are now aware of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the general well-being of their children.
The Project Coordinator, ANRiN Oyo Project Implementation Unit, Dr Khadijah Alarape, disclosed this during a stakeholders meeting of state Committee on Food and Nutrition, organised by ANRiN Project, and held at Owu Crown Hotel, Ibadan.
Elated with the recent data from MICS 2022 Survey, Dr. Alarape appreciated the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, for his support at increasing the maternity leave for pregnant women from three months to six months.
She also eulogized ANRiN for implementing the Seven Basic Packages of Nutritional Services across the 33 local government areas of the state.
She averred that this has really helped the status of exclusive breastfeeding in the state in the last two years.
She said, “The state governor should be thanked for his help at granting six-month maternity leave for our mothers. This has really helped. This can be confirmed from available statistics on nutrition indices that the state is doing well as far as exclusive breastfeeding is concerned. Although we need to work more on the rate of stunting in the state.”
Calling for more collaboration from the SCFN members, Dr. Alarape said that it is imperative for every line ministries on nutrition to have a budgetary allocation for nutrition activities in their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
She reiterated ANRiN’s effort at providing cost effective nutritional services to pregnant and lactating women, adolescent-girls, as well as children under the game of five across the state.
She also said two non-state actors, Solina Health Limited and Save the Children are currently working in communities across the state, giving pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as children under five basic package of nutritional services.
In his welcome address, the Director of Development Partners, at the Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mr. Moruf Oyetunji, said that the meeting is a statutory meeting, which is held quarterly to review butritional intervention and address malnutrition in the state.
In another development, the Oyo State government has assured users of the Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin road and its environ that the newly constructed Ogun River bridge on the road will be opened to traffic soon, as the work is close to completion.
The assurance was given by the state Commissioner for Public Works and Transports, Professor Dahud Kehinde Sangodoyin, during an inspection of the 34.8-kilimetre Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin road constructions, which started in 2021.
Commending the state governor, Engineer Makinde, for his relentless effort to improve the state agriculture and economy through the construction of good roads, Professor Sangodoyin implored the citizens to protect whatever facility the government has provided so that there will not be any need for unnecessary repair.
