Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has launched the South-South phase of the National Community Food Bank Programme in Cross River State, with food distribution flagged off at the Ediba Primary Healthcare Centre in Calabar Municipality.
The programme, an initiative of the Office of the Wife of the President, is designed to provide nutritious, locally sourced food to malnourished children under six, pregnant and lactating women, orphans and vulnerable children, and other high-risk households through a voucher system linked to primary healthcare.
The National Community Food Bank Programme is designed to take nutrition support beyond emergency assistance and into the communities where vulnerable families live.
The programme will use primary healthcare centres to identify and screen beneficiaries, provide nutrition counselling and health education, and distribute food through a voucher system.
Its immediate focus is on children under six, pregnant and lactating women, orphans and vulnerable children, and households considered to be at high risk.
The food is expected to be sourced locally through partnerships involving the Bank of Agriculture, creating a link between nutrition support and increased food production.
In Cross River State, the food bank at Ediba will serve the Southern Senatorial District, while the Maternal and Child Health Centre in Ikom will serve the Central District and the Maternal and Child Health Centre in Ogoja will serve the North.
For the programme to reach the people it is designed to serve and government structures will need the support of the communities themselves.
That was the focus of the Wife of the President’s meeting with the Obong of Calabar and members of the Cross River State Traditional Rulers Council at the Executive Council Chambers.
The traditional institutions are expected to support community mobilisation, help identify vulnerable households and strengthen the oversight of the food banks.
The community-based approach was central to the South-South launch at the Peregrino, Government House, where Cross River joined five other states in the rollout of the programme.
The phase covers Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Rivers States.
The Wife of the President urged the Governors to establish food banks in at least three senatorial districts and work with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency to keep the facilities functional.
For Cross River State, the federal programme comes alongside the state government’s efforts to increase food production and address the causes of hunger.
Governor Bassey Otu said the state had already established functional food banks across its three senatorial districts. He also linked the intervention to the state’s investments in rice and cassava production, support for farmers and agribusinesses, and the development of agro-processing clusters.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, described nutrition as a critical investment in Nigeria’s human capital.
The commissioning of an ICT Digital Experience Centre at the University of Cross River State was also part of the activities of the country’s First Lady.
Meanwhile, the Wife of the President also announced a support package of N25 million each for shop owners affected by the Spar fire outbreak in Calabar.
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(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
