Naijajingles
No fewer than 469 children died from malnutrition between January and July 2025 in Kano State, as the crisis of poor nutrition continues to threaten child survival in the state.
This was disclosed by Professor Ruqayya Aliyu Yusuf of the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano (BUK), while presenting a paper titled “Understanding the Basics of Behavioural Change: Towards Improving Malnutrition in Kano State” at a media sensitisation training.
Professor Yusuf said malnutrition and poor dietary practices remain major public health challenges in Kano, noting that Nigeria still ranks poorly on the Global Nutrition Index.
Citing 2025 UNICEF reports, she revealed that about 40 per cent of children under 5 years in Nigeria are stunted, while the figure is significantly higher in Kano at 51.9 per cent.
According to her, the high burden of malnutrition is driven by poverty, food insecurity, poor dietary habits and inadequate health awareness among caregivers.
Also speaking at the event, a crop scientist, Amina Ado Yahaya, said Kano State records the highest prevalence of underweight children under the age of five, with 42.6 per cent affected. She stressed the need for localised interventions such as homestead vegetable gardening to improve household nutrition.
Yahaya further explained that Vitamin A deficiency remains a major cause of childhood blindness and increases the severity of common infections such as measles and diarrhoea, thereby worsening child mortality in the state.
