By Alhaji Haruna Sani
In their quest to enhance food sufficiency and to boost nutrition in Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Chamber of Agri-business Development (SLeCAD) and Scaling-up Nutrition(SUN) Secretariat,Office of the Vice President are set to organize the 4th annual national scaling-up nutrition fair in Moyamba,Southern Sierra Leone.
Speaking to newsmen on Saturday,March 4, at their head office,Bathurst Street in Freetown, Ahmed Nanoh, Executive Secretary of SLeCAD,Ahmed Nanoh informed newsmen that the nutrition fair, which they would be organized in conjunction with Scaling up Nutrition will last from the 9th to the 11th of this month on the theme “Eat Nutritious Food for Healthy Living.”
He said the SUN Secretariat is government institution positioned in the Office of the Vice President that works with private sector institutions including Civil Society Organisations to achieve food sufficiency and improve on nutrition within the country.
The Executive Secretary noted that the role of SLeCAD as a private sector is to evaluate the Scaling up Nutrition so as to help identify the gaps, identify the potential of the food Sierra Leoneans eat, to know those producing foods and where are they, what are their packaging systems and the challenges they face.
Nanoh said the event would also help government to assess what SUN and partners like SLeCAD were doing towards achieving the development agenda of the country.
The Executive Secretary further explained that the event would also help stakeholders in assessing the access to market and finance by food producers and showcasing the nutritious food they produce.
“The event would help policy makers to look into policy environment on local financing, interest rate, long term financing, grace period for financing and generally improve policies on access to finance,” he said.
On behalf of SLeCAD and other private sector players, Nanoh expressed gratitude for working with the office of the Vice President’s scaling up nutrition, which he said actively collaborate with the private sector.
“For us to have a wealthy and healthy Sierra Leoneans with reduced malnutrition, people need to eat nutritious food. The goal is for a concerted effort by private sector partners, development partners, foreign agencies, multilateral agencies to ensure Sierra Leone is able to produce sufficient food and export to the wider world,” he stated.
Nanoh said with concerted efforts by key players, Sierra Leone would be able to save the two to two hundred and fifty million dollars use to import rice and concurrently create job opportunities for many Sierra Leoneans.
He said the United Nations World Food Programme findings on food insecurity status shows that 2.2million Sierra Leoneans are going chronic hunger and 1.6 million are going acute hunger.
