Plateau State Government’s investment in preventive child nutrition is beginning to show early gains across primary healthcare centres, following the rollout of Small-Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements (SQ-LNS) with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The intervention, implemented through the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF), targets children aged six to 11 months during the critical complementary feeding period, with the aim of preventing malnutrition before it advances to moderate or severe stages.
Visits to selected primary healthcare centres in Jos South, Jos North and neighbouring local government areas showed that health workers have begun integrating the distribution of SQ-LNS into routine maternal and child health services, including immunisation, growth monitoring and nutrition counselling.
At the Bukuru Express Primary Health Centre, Gyel A, in Jos South, several mothers said they were already noticing visible changes in their children since receiving the supplements.
One of them, Jennifer Samson, said her baby’s appetite and energy levels improved shortly after she started using the product.
“I add it to pap, and my baby eats better and is more active. It has also helped reduce how much I spend on feeding,” she said.
Another mother, Planang Wisituwe, described the changes she observed in her child’s physical development.
“My baby gained weight and started crawling and holding objects,” she added.
Speaking on the implementation of the programme, the Focal Person for Primary Health Care in Jos South, Mrs. Paula Manaam Hata, said the SQ-LNS intervention is being carried out across all wards in the local government area.
She explained that community mobilisers have been deployed to raise awareness and encourage participation, while mothers are informed of distribution schedules and properly guided on how to use the supplements.
According to her, the initiative is being delivered alongside broader efforts to improve infant and young child feeding practices at the community level.
In Jos North Local Government Area, the Nutrition Focal Person, Mrs. Nanre Kannap, said the intervention is already recording visible improvements in children’s growth and increasing acceptance among caregivers.
She explained that the supplements are designed to complement breastfeeding after six months, when breast milk alone is no longer sufficient to meet a child’s nutritional needs.
“We have seen clear improvements in children’s growth, and the number of women accessing the service has increased significantly,” Kannap said.
She added that increased community mobilisation has driven higher turnout at health facilities, as caregivers who noticed improvements in their own children encouraged others to participate.
Kannap said SQ-LNS distribution in Jos North is currently taking place in two primary healthcare centres — Township Primary Health Care Centre in Tafawa Balewa and Nasarawa PHC in Naraguta A — serving two wards in the local government area.
She noted that some of the centres now receive over 400 caregivers weekly, with each eligible child receiving one sachet daily, amounting to 30 sachets per month throughout the intervention period.
At the Township Primary Health Care Centre in Jos North, the officer in charge, Mrs. Halima Chantu, described a consistently high turnout of caregivers from different wards.
She said that most children assessed using mid-upper arm circumference measurements were within healthy ranges and were already showing improvements compared to earlier visits.
Despite the high demand, Chantu identified manpower constraints as a challenge, noting that the increased workload has stretched the available health personnel at the facility.
Explaining the funding structure behind the intervention, the Plateau State Deputy Nutrition Officer, Silas Nansel, said the SQ-LNS currently being distributed was procured from an initial ₦200 million released by the Plateau State Government.
He said the amount was matched by UNICEF through the Child Nutrition Fund, enabling the procurement and distribution of the supplements to selected primary healthcare facilities across the state.
“This is a government-led intervention supported by partners. The focus is on early prevention, so children do not progress to severe malnutrition,” Nansel said.
Teams of journalists, who visited other health centres across Jos North and neighbouring local government areas reported similar scenes, with caregivers and health workers echoing improvements in children’s growth, high uptake of the supplements and increased awareness of early nutrition practices.
Nutrition officials said the early results underscore the importance of sustained public investment in child nutrition, noting that preventive interventions in early childhood remain critical to long-term health, learning outcomes and productivity in Plateau State.
