Sokoto’s 15% 2024 Budget to address malnutrition

Sokoto’s 15% 2024 Budget to address malnutrition


Sokoto State government has allocated 15 percent of its 2024 budget to address malnutrition, the state Deputy Governor, Idris Gobir, has said.

Gobir stated this during the World NOMA Day celebration organized by Medicine San Frontier and the state Ministry of Health, on Saturday in Sokoto.

The state has a budget proposal of N270.1bn for the 2024 fiscal year.

“We are worried by the alarming rate of malnutrition in the state and our government is committed to reversing this ugly trend,” he added.

Gobir commended MSF for supporting the state to treat and rehabilitate malnourished and Noma infected children.

Earlier, the Project Coordinator of MSF, John Canty, linked Noma disease to acute malnutrition which he said needs to be tackled as the first step toward total prevention and eradication.

He stressed the need for parents to accept routine immunization, but decried stigmatization of Noma disease survivors.

The MSF Medical Team Leader, Dr. Samuel Joseph, said they had conducted 2,233 major and minor surgeries on Noma patients in the state in 2023.

He also said that 1,782 severely malnourished children were treated within the period under review.

Joseph frowned at late presentation of victims for treatment, saying Noma patients could die few weeks after contacting the disease if not attended to.