Oyo govt expands micronutrient supplementation to tackle anaemia in pregnancy

The Oyo State Government has intensified efforts to tackle anaemia in pregnancy and improve maternal and child health with the launch and statewide expansion of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) for pregnant women.

The initiative, being implemented in collaboration with development partners, including Evidence Action and UNICEF, aims to address nutritional deficiencies, reduce pregnancy-related complications and promote healthy child development through improved access to essential micronutrients.

Speaking at the programme’s launch, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, said multiple micronutrient supplements could offer advantages over single supplements, such as ferrous sulphate or folic acid alone, stressing the need for evidence-based interventions to improve maternal nutrition.

“Even single use of MMS compared to maybe a single use of ferrous and maybe a single use of folic acid, MMS has some form of advantage over those single uses,” she said.

Ajetunmobi explained that some pregnant women experienced gastrointestinal disturbances while taking ferrous sulphate, discouraging consistent use and potentially contributing to persistent anaemia.

“Some women, when they use ferrous sulphate, have gastrointestinal disturbances. So, a lot of women, even when we give it to them, don’t take it. They’d rather prefer to take folic acid alone, and by the time they are coming back, you still have them having some form of anaemia in pregnancy,” the commissioner said.

She added that pregnancy-related conditions, poor dietary intake and limited access to nutritious foods could prevent women from obtaining the nutrients required for healthy pregnancies.

According to her, adequate supplementation would help prevent anaemia, support foetal development and reduce complications that could arise during childbirth.

The Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji, said early intervention was essential to addressing nutritional challenges and safeguarding children’s development.

Olatunji disclosed that the state had invested in nutrition commodities with support from development partners, while recruiting nutritionists and strengthening the roles of nutrition officers across local government areas to improve service delivery.

“We have made so much investment; there should be a return on those investments,” he said, emphasising the need for professional expertise, accountability and measurable results from government-funded nutrition programmes.

He added that strengthening institutions and ensuring nutrition officers took leading roles in grassroots interventions would be critical to achieving sustainable improvements in maternal and child nutrition.

Also speaking, the Director of Nutrition in Oyo State, Dr Khadija Alarape, said the government was implementing interventions across all 33 local government areas through primary healthcare centres while promoting adequate dietary intake and nutritional supplementation.

Alarape disclosed that the state had committed ₦227 million to the procurement of MMS, with matching support from UNICEF, and was providing the supplements free of charge to eligible women.

She said the programme was being expanded beyond primary healthcare centres to secondary and private health facilities to reach more eligible women aged 15 to 49, in line with efforts to improve coverage across the state.

The director expressed optimism that the wider distribution of supplements would strengthen efforts to prevent anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies among women of reproductive age.

Meanwhile, Evidence Action’s Southwest Regional Programme Manager, Mrs Miriam Edeh, commended the Oyo State Government for sustaining its partnership with the organisation for more than a decade, covering interventions such as statewide deworming and other public health programmes.

Edeh said the MMS initiative represented another milestone in the partnership, adding that Evidence Action was providing technical support to strengthen monitoring and evaluation, accountability and the sustainable delivery of supplements to pregnant women.

She also commended the state’s financial commitment to maternal nutrition, noting that increased domestic funding was becoming increasingly important as donor resources declined.

According to her, the state’s investment demonstrated the importance of government ownership in sustaining public health interventions and ensuring that pregnant women had access to essential nutritional support.