Nigeria: Exclusive Breastfeeding In South-West Improving-UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)  says the percentage of mothers in South-West and Edo engaging in exclusive breastfeeding of their children under 6 months had improved over the years.

Dr Niyi Olaleye, UNICEF Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist said this at a two-day workshop on data-driven reports for journalists  on Thursday in Ibadan.

Olaleye said that exclusive breastfeeding  by mothers  in the region in 2016 and 2017 was 43.9 per cent   as against 17.1  per cent  in 2007.

He said that Osun had the highest percentage of exclusive breastfeeding of 55.3 in 2017 followed by Lagos State with 51.8 percentage.

Olaleye  said that Ogun and Ondo had the lowest rates of exclusive feeding of infants.

Olaleye  said that in Ogun the percentage of exclusive breastfeeding for infant was 23.1 per cent in 2007, 13.6 in 2011 and 20.9 in 2016 and 2017.

In Ondo State,  Olaleye said that  14.3 per cent exclusive breastfeeding was recorded  in 2007 , 8.6 in 2011 and 23.5 between 2016 and 2017.

Olaleye said the statistics was based on Multiple Indicators cluster (MIC) survey.

He said MIC is an international household survey on a wide range of indicators on the situation of children and women.

He added that UNICEF had been committed in partnering with National Bureau of Statistics to implement MIC since 1995.