By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Ogun River Bridge will soon be opened to traffic very soon as the work on the road is close to completion, the Commissioner for Public Works and Transports in Oyo State, Professor Dahud Kehinde Sangodoyin, assured during an inspection of the 34.8 Km Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin Road constructions which started in 2021.
While commending Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for his relentless effort to improve the state’s 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.
Meanwhile, the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) has disclosed that the state has achieved 58.7 per cent in the practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding by Women of Child Bearing Age.
The Project Coordinator of ANRiN Oyo Project Implementation Unit, Dr Khadijah Alarape, confirmed this on Thursday at a stakeholders’ meeting of the State Committee on Food and Nutrition organised by ANRiN Project at the Owu Crown Hotel, Ibadan.
The ANRIN PC, who was elated with the recent data from MICS 2022 Survey, 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.
She lauded Mr Makinde for his support in increasing the maternity leave for pregnant women from 3 months to six months and also ANRiN for implementing 7 Basic Package of Nutritional Services across the 33 LGAs in the state.
This, according to her, has really helped the status of exclusive breastfeeding in the state in the last two years.
“The state governor should be thanked for his help in granting 6-months 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,” she stated.
While calling for more collaboration of the SCFN members, Dr Alarape said every Line Ministries on Nutrition must have a budgetary allocation for nutrition activities in their various MDAs.
She reiterated ANRiN’s effort at providing cost-effective Nutritional Services to Pregnant and Lactating Women, adolescent-girls as well as children under five across the state.
She also said two non-state actors, Solina Health Ltd 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 the meeting is a statutory meeting which is held quarterly to review nutritional intervention and address malnutrition in the state.
Adedapo Adesanya