By MOHAMMED ALHAJI, Lafia
Federal Ministry of Health said it has trained 37 personnel on nutrition commodity logistics managers in Nasarawa State.
A nutrition officer from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Adeoti Samuel, a facilitator disclosed this at a 2-day training for nutrition commodity logistics managers, held in Lafia, on Friday.
The training, which was organized by Nutrition International in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Nasarawa State Government is aimed at ensuring effective documentation of all Nutrition commodities coming into the state.
He explained that the training is to build a pool of nutrition logistics managers that will cascade training to facilities through the use of Nutrition Health Logistics Management information system (NHLMIS) as well as to collaborate with NPSCMP for visibility and accountability of nutrition commodities.
According to Samuel, the NHLMIS will also allow stakeholders to analyse essential data trends and support inventory management for decision-making processes. Even as he was optimistic that the country will get it right against flawless nutrition data collection for analysis.
Speaking, Mrs. Beatrice Orume, a Director from the federal ministry of health said the country has received five million doses of Multiple Micro-Nutrient Supplement (MMS) and Nasarawa state is among the first state to receive the commodity, hence the need to document and report commodity utilization.
On this part Nasarawa State Secretary, Civil Society, Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Jonah Aboki, said CS-SUNN is already collaborating with Vitamin Angels in terms of providing deworming tabs and Vitamin A for the state during MNCHW and pledged to support any nutrition inventory modification in the state.
Explaining the supply chain management circle in the state, the state LMCU Coordinator, Ezekiel Mai-dawa, briefed the participants on some thematic areas in logistics management to include, target beneficiaries of nutrition intervention for pregnant woman, under 5 Children, WCBA, and adolescents.
The state LMCU Coordinator mentioned vitamin A, RUTF, MMS/IFA, SP, ORS/ZINC micro-nutrient powder and albendazole, SQ-LNS, as some of the commodities used in nutrition space.
Mai-dawa urged the managers to take inventory of facility data, consumption data, service data, and estimated projection inventory management for storage and distribution, which are necessary quantification and procurement.
Mrs. Halima Yusuf, the state Director Nutrition and Dietetics ministry of health, assured that the state will ensure compliance with the requirements of the logistics management system of the state noting that nutrition commodities enhance nutrition for children under five years, pregnant women, and promote health.
