The wife of Kaduna State Governor, Ummi El-Rufai, has called for the setting up of creches in government ministries and agencies to promote exclusive breastfeeding in the state.

The governor’s wife made the call in Kaduna on Thursday in a message to the opening of a creche at the state Planning and Budget Commission.

Mrs. El-Rufai, who is the Chairperson of Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), said the initiative would also boost the productivity of female civil servants.

Represented by KADENAP’s Project Manager, Mr. Umar Bambale, the governor’s wife added that it would reduce the rate of morbidity and mortality among children under the age of five.

She disclosed that KADENAP had supported the scale-up of a community infant and young child feeding intervention in 22 local governments, as part of efforts to promote exclusive breastfeeding and adequate nutrition of children.

“As we know, breastfeeding has remained a high impact intervention for ensuring survival, adequate growth, and development of children,” Mrs. El-Rufai said.

She called on the planning and budget commission to push the campaign for exclusive breastfeeding by ensuring that creches are established in all MDAs and private establishments.

This, she stressed, would ensure conducive private spaces for breastfeeding by working-class mothers.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the commission, Mrs. Phoebe Sukai-Yayi, said bringing up infants is delicate and needs continuity even after wearing them.

Sukai-Yayi added that the infants also needed close supervision under the same roof as their mothers, so as to have full concentration during work hours.

“The creche, if provided in every MDA and private organizations and even schools, will enhance the returns of investments, reduce absenteeism, resignation and reduce the rate of unhygienic practices by nannies or other women we keep our infants with while away for work.

“Today, we are here to inaugurate the creche established by the Planning and Budget Commission to support lactating mothers to continue to breastfeed their infants in a comfortable space within the office when their maternity leave expires”, she said.

The permanent secretary explained that lack of adequate nutrition and proper care has irreversible consequences on the growth and development of children.

“Poor nutrition particularly impacts negatively on school enrolment while undernourished children are less likely to enroll in school and more likely to drop out, even if enrolled.

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“It is more cost-effective to institute preventive measures by promoting optimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices and other support for children within the first 1000 days window than to compensate for the disadvantages as they grow older”, Suki-Yayi added.

She urged all MDAs, private and federal government agencies, and offices in the state to provide spaces for creches, so as to scale up nutrition for children and productivity of mothers.

“The government is also considering approving a paternity leave for men in the state civil service whose wives have delivered, to enable them to support their wives to exclusively breastfeed their babies”, she said.

Nutrition stakeholders present at the event included Alive and Thrive, CS-SUNN, Save the Children, Federal government agencies, among others.

Kaduna state government had in 2019 increased maternity leave from three to six months, to support working mothers in the state civil service to exclusively breastfeed their babies.