The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Bauchi State Government to expedite the process of releasing its N200 million pledge as a matching grant to the Child Nutrition Fund, aiming to combat growing malnutrition among children in the state.

The State Governor, Bala Mohammed, had previously pledged to fund the intervention with N200 million, while the local governments contributed N100 million, which was recently released.

Approximately, malnourished children from Bauchi State stand to benefit from N600 million Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) only if the state government releases its funds.

While speaking at the Bauchi Local Government Secretariat on Monday, UNICEF’s Bauchi Chief of Field Office, Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, applauded the council chairmen for their roles in child welfare.

She said that the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) is a matching grant available to states to combat malnutrition, which she said is prevalent in Bauchi.

“We really need to take care of the children by procuring RUTF and Small Supplements for the Prevention of Malnutrition in Early Childhood (SQ-LNS), which are the supplies for securing and preventing malnutrition.

“I really appreciate the support from the LGAs, and we told the Governor that the LGAs have already pooled N100 million for CNF already, and we requested him to contribute from state side as well, and he also very kindly and graciously, he committed to provide N200 million from state side, so we can have 300 million Naira in total, and CNF would contribute N300 million. So, total Bauchi malnourished children can benefit from RUTF, which would bring N600 million RUTF to Bauchi,” she said.

The Local Government Chairman, Mahmood Babamaji, who is also the ALGON Chairman, expressed a greater commitment to child welfare, pledging that the council would engage the UNICEF team in developing the 2026 budget to implement more child-friendly policies.

He said that UNICEF has always engaged grassroot leaders about the situation of children, saying that the UN Agency organised a meeting in Jos over the issues of malnutrition “and the indices, and all the indicators have shown they have taken effect in our respective local government at the time.

“We got worried and we got so concerned about the indices. We came back and spoke with His Excellency at that time.

We collectively resolved to really support the issues of malnutrition that are affecting the government of Nigeria.
“I assure you that with our next budget for 2026, the issues of malnutrition will be adequately taken care of, You know, the adequacy of our budget will be taken care of. We will leave no room for any challenge,” he said.