The Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning said it has intensified nutrition Budget tagging and tracking in the southwest region, aiming to improve transparency, accountability, and the effective implementation of nutrition interventions.
According to the ministry, the larger effort is to combat malnutrition in Nigeria by expanding nutrition budget tagging. This system tracks and identifies nutrition-related spending across government budgets.
This was disclosed during a three-day training session held in Lagos. The training brought together officials from Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Lagos States with the goal of operationalising nutrition budget tagging ahead of 2026.
It was organised in collaboration with the World Bank’s Accelerated Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project,
Speaking at the training, a top official from the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Tope Omotola, said, “Nutrition budget tagging helps us trace every kobo allocated to nutrition. It ensures that funds are properly utilised and aligned with the National Multisectoral Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition.”
The tagging system, which was first piloted in 11 states and has since expanded to include all the states and the Federal Capital Territory, enables federal and state governments to classify and monitor nutrition-related expenditures using a standard taxonomy, a structured way of labelling budget items to ensure consistency and visibility.
Participants in the workshop are being trained to apply this taxonomy, equipping them with the skills to identify, track, and report nutrition investments more effectively.
According to Omotola, this capacity-building effort is essential for ensuring nutrition policies are implemented at the grassroots level, where malnutrition is most severe.
He stressed that addressing malnutrition is a public health priority and an economic imperative, saying, “Malnutrition costs Nigeria a significant amount of its Gross National Product. When children are malnourished, their cognitive development suffers, limiting their ability to contribute meaningfully to the economy later in life.”
He highlighted the critical importance of the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, a window of opportunity for proper nutrition that, if missed, can have lifelong consequences. “By investing in nutrition now, we’re investing in a healthier, more productive future workforce,” he said.
Another facilitator from the Office of the Accountant General, Abuja, Femi Bolaji, explained that they introduced an approved taxonomy, requiring MDAs to classify nutrition programmes under six defined result areas.
He believes this system would enable governments to identify better, monitor, and analyse nutrition financing across sectors.
“This workshop is about implementing nutrition tagging in Nigerian budgets. We are training the Southwest states on capturing nutrition projects in their budgets using the agreed taxonomy. This will help the government track nutrition spending and provide informed reports on Nigeria’s nutrition performance,” Bolaji said.
