Nigeria Making Progress In Nutrition Data, Logistics – Ministry

Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, through the Nutrition Department, has maintained that Nigeria is making progress in its nutrition information system, given evidence-based planning, coordinationand accountability in the nutrition sector.

At the 2nd Quarter 2026 meeting of the National Nutrition Technical Working Group (NNTWG) held from 24th to 25th June in Abuja, the ministry submitted that more needed to be done despite the huge progress made thus far.

The meeting, with the theme, “Strengthening Nutrition Routine Information System” had over 140  participants in attendance physically and virtually.

The participants who were drawn from federal and state ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), Office of the Vice President, development partners, implementing partners, civil society organisations, academia, regulatory bodie and state nutrition officers across the six geopolitical zones, affirmed that a strong nutrition response depends on a functional, standardised and reliable information system.

While noting that recent data from the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) clearly stated that.

40% of children aged 6–59 months are stunted, 8% wasted, and 27% underweight. The federal ministry of health decried that exclusive breastfeeding remains suboptimal at 29%, even as micronutrient deficiencies persist, with 30% of children deficient in vitamin A and 31% affected by anaemia.

“These figures remind us that, despite the progress made, much work remains to be done, as data quality is directly linked to the systems and processes that generate it, the ministry stressed.

The discussion centred on ways to improve the NHMIS status, and participants averred that weaknesses in standardisation and digitisation continue to result in fragmented reporting, delayed decision-making, and inefficiencies in service delivery.

The NHMIS was reviewed and validated in 2024 and 2025 to integrate updated nutrition indicators and improve monitoring and decision-making.

The revised tools now include key nutrition data elements such as Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS), Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements (SQ-LNS), Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF), birth weight, and early initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth.

These tools were pilot-tested in six states: Benue, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ogun, Cross River, and Ebonyi, followed by national validation of Primary Health Care (PHC) tools in May 2026.

Having their observations, participants decried that delays in the nationwide rollout of the revised NHMIS tools have contributed to the continued use of parallel data collection systems by partners, which undermine efforts towards harmonised reporting on Nutrition Logistics Systems.

Participants also reviewed progress on the Nigeria Health Logistics Management Information System (NHLMIS), the country’s first integrated health logistics platform that provides end-to-end visibility into commodity availability across the health system.

“Significant progress was reported, including the onboarding of nutrition commodities from 5 commodities to 23 commodities on the platform. These include RUTF, F-75, F-100, RUSF, MMS (all variants), SQ-LNS, MNP, ORS, zinc sulphate, albendazole, iron-folic acid, vitamin A, and other essential nutrition commodities.23 states have been trained and are actively reporting live nutrition commodity data on the NHLMIS, which launched on 1 October 2025 with 185 Health facilities reporting for the first time, providing visibility down to the health facility level.

“These achievements are significant, but they must be consolidated and scaled nationwide. The system also integrates State Nutrition Officers and Local Government Area Nutrition Focal Persons into the logistics reporting structure.

Part of the achievement shows that training was conducted for over 1,774 government staff across 23 states, during which NHMIS tools were reviewed and validated on 13th-14th May, 2026. This, therefore, established the presence of nutrition data elements in the Antenatal Care (ANC) Registers, Labour and Delivery Registers, Growth Monitoring Registers, and the corresponding summary forms.

Participants further expressed concerns about persistent challenges, including parallel procurement and distribution systems, risks of commodity diversion and expiry, and weak integration of logistics data for planning and decision-making.

They also appealed for sustained collaboration among government institutions, development partners, civil society organisations, and academia to accelerate progress toward national nutrition goals.

“The National Nutrition Technical Working Group continues to serve as Nigeria’s central platform for technical coordination, evidence generation, and alignment of nutrition interventions across all levels of government”.