Director General, Consumer Protection Council of Nigeria (CPC), Tunde Irukera, has pledged his agency’s commitment to the ongoing nutrition improvement campaign being championed by members of the SUN Business Network.
Irukera gave the pledge at a nutrition workshop organised by the Lagos Business School’s First Bank Sustainability Centre in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the SUN Business Network to commemorate the first anniversary of SUN Business Network Nigeria in the country.
He said CPC will work with the SUN Business Network to promote educational messages and guidelines on nutrition communication to drive consumers’ capacity to demand for nutritious foods and improved nutrition.
A year after its launch, he said membership of the network has grown from 21 to over 50 private sector members including AACE Foods, Nutricima, Dansa Foods Processing Limited, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Nigerian Breweries, UAC Foods Limited and Unilever Nigeria Plc, among others.
Earlier, the National SUN Business Network Coordinator, Mrs. Uduak Igbeka, expressed satisfaction with the level of interest and commitment to the initiative by Nigerian private sector, stressing the need for more non-food sector businesses to be part of the movement as fighting malnutrition requires a multi-sectoral approach.
Also speaking, Dean, Lagos Business School, Dr. Enase Okonedo, urged stakeholders to do more to improve nutrition for the citizenry as nutrition is vital to development of healthy human capital for the country.
The one-day event with the theme, “Nutrition: Everyone’s Business”, attracted experts from the academia, public and private sectors, including representatives from the Federal Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Budget and National Planning, the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), NAFDAC, CPC and over 50 corporate members of SBN Nigeria. Representatives from development agencies including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) were also in attendance.
The SBN Nigeria was officially launched in 2016 by GAIN to promote business engagement in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement. It is a collaboration of corporate organisations with a defined focus to improve nutrition and address food security in line with the priorities of the Federal Government.