Economy
Expert Reveals How Community Support Crucial To Improved Breastfeeding, Maternal Health
Expert Reveals How Community Support Crucial To Improved Breastfeeding, Maternal Health
Expert reveals how community support crucial to improved breastfeeding, maternal health. She called on policymakers to prioritise paid maternity leave and breastfeeding-friendly workplace policies.
Khadijat Adeleye, a public health expert, says sustained support across family, community, workplace, health systems and policy levels are crucial to improving breastfeeding rates and maternal health outcomes.
Ms Adeleye, a maternal health advocate, said this in an interview with journalists on Sunday in Abuja.
She spoke as part of activities to mark the 2025 World Breastfeeding Week.
This year’s theme for World Breastfeeding Week, which will be observed from August 1st to 7th, is “Let’s Make Breastfeeding and Work, Work!”
The theme stresses the need to create supportive environments that enable mothers to breastfeed while balancing work commitments successfully.
The campaign highlights the importance of essential maternity rights and workplace accommodation to ensure that mothers can continue breastfeeding for as long as they choose.
Ms Adeleye said that while exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most effective interventions for reducing infant mortality, it remains underutilised in Nigeria due to fragmented support systems.
“We can not expect mothers to successfully breastfeed without consistent encouragement and structures in place, whether at home, work or the health facility.
“Support must be collective, continuous, and culturally sensitive.
“According to the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, only 29 per cent of Nigerian infants under six months are exclusively breastfed.
“That is well below the global target of 50 per cent by 2025 set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), ” she said.
She said that mothers were more likely to initiate and sustain breastfeeding when they receive early guidance from health workers, encouragement from family members, and practical support from employers.
She said that support from employers included flexible work hours and breastfeeding spaces.
Ms Adeleye also pointed to the success of mother support groups in rural areas, particularly in Benue and Kaduna States.
According to her, through such groups, community-driven initiatives have raised exclusive breastfeeding rates through peer counselling and household visits.
She urged the government to fully enforce the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, while promoting baby-friendly hospital initiatives across the country.
“Nigeria must invest in supportive systems that protect breastfeeding from being undermined by commercial interests and social pressures,” she said.
She further called on policymakers to prioritise paid maternity leave and breastfeeding-friendly workplace policies, warning that the lack of structural support continues to put both mothers and babies at risk.
She stressed the need for workplace-friendly breastfeeding policies in Nigeria. In alignment with this year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme.
“Making breastfeeding at work, work, makes societies work.
Expert Reveals How Community Support Crucial To Improved Breastfeeding
“Breastfeeding provides vital health and nutritional benefits for children with positive lifelong impacts, building healthier populations and workforces for the future,” she said.
She said that women should not have to choose between breastfeeding their children and keeping their jobs, as support is possible regardless of workplace, sector or contract type.
“Effective maternity protections improve children’s and women’s health and increase breastfeeding rates.
“Today, more than half a billion working women globally lack access to vital maternity provisions. Many more face limited or no support when they return to work,” she said.
Ms Adeleye recommended that all women, regardless of the nature of their work, should have at least 18 weeks, and preferably more than six months, of paid maternity leave.
She also advocated for paid time off to breastfeed or express milk after returning to work, along with flexible return-to-work options.
She called policymakers to strengthen existing labour laws and health sector policies to ensure that both formal and informal sector workers receive adequate breastfeeding support.
“Without such provisions, national efforts to improve maternal and child health may continue to fall short,” she said.
Navy Dismantles Illegal Refining Capacity, Destroys Site With 3 Storage Tanks in Rivers
The Nigerian Navy, through FOB BONNY, has dismantled an illegal refining site discovered in Promise Land Community along Nanabie Creek, Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, further denying criminal operators the infrastructure required to process stolen crude oil.
Eereporter.com
The site was discovered on 30 September 2026 following credible intelligence and comprised one large cooking pot and 3 large storage tanks intended for illegal refining activities. On 2 October 2026, the Commanding Officer, FOB BONNY, Captain SMC Umeh, led a team to the location, where the illegal refining site and associated equipment were destroyed in accordance with established regulations.
The intervention represents a further disruption of illegal refining capacity within the Bonny area, particularly by removing infrastructure that could be used to process and store stolen crude oil. It also follows recent operations by FOB BONNY under Operation DELTA SENTINEL that uncovered substantial volumes of suspected stolen crude oil and associated illegal refining infrastructure within its Area of Operations
Oil
The Nigerian Navy has continued to strengthen surveillance and monitoring across the area to prevent the establishment or reactivation of illegal refining sites and deny criminal operators the infrastructure required to sustain crude oil theft and related activities.
ABIODUN FOLORUNSHO
Navy Captain
Director Naval Information
Nigerian Navy
Eereporter.com
NNPC Ltd Offers N66 Fuel Discount Throughout the Nation
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) has unveiled a nationwide ₦66 fuel discount promotion for customers using the NNPC Fuel App.
Eereporter.com
In a post obtained from its X handle on Friday, the promotion, which runs from October 1 to 7, is being held across NNPC stations nationwide as part of activities marking the period.
“The ₦66 Discount Promo is ongoing & the excitement is already happening across our stations nationwide!
“All over Nigeria, our customers are getting in on the action & there’s still time for you to benefit!
The promo runs from 1–7 October on the NNPC Fuel App,” the post read.
NNPC said customers across the country have already begun participating in the promotion, with highlights from the first day showing activities at several stations.
“Keep fueling, keep transacting and keep your eyes on our pages,” the post read.
NNPC
NNPC also shared moments from the first day of the promotion and said more pictures and activities from stations across the country would be released.
The company urged customers not to miss the opportunity to participate before the promotion ends on October 7.
The ₦66 discount offer is available through the NNPC Fuel App during the stated promotional period.
Eereporter.com
President Tinubu Tells EFCC: You Have Justified my Confidence in You
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has applauded the efforts and performance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in tackling economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption in the country, stressing that it has justified the confidence reposed on it.
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He gave this commendation on Friday, October 2, 2026 in Awka, Anambra State at the commissioning of a new Zonal Directorate of the EFCC. The President pointed out that there are evidential proofs of the success of the Commission in convictions, recoveries and other landmark achievements
Represented by Honourable Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker, House of Representatives, Tinubu noted that “supporting the EFCC is not particularly difficult. The agency has consistently demonstrated that the confidence reposed on it is well founded. Without mincing words, the evidential proof of the EFCC’s success speaks loudly in convictions secured, assets and properties recovered”
He affirmed that the strides of the Commission are in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration.
“When we came in three years ago, I highlighted nine major focal areas of my administration. Two of which are reforming the economy for sustained and inclusive growth and promotion of good governance. The anti-graft agency compliments this agenda as they are focused on accountability and transparency and appropriate deployment of resources”, he said.
At the commissioning, the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede restated the commitment of the Commission to preventive frameworks in tackling economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption in the country.
According to him, the Commission will continue its focus on making corrupt practices difficult by blocking avenues through which they may happen.
“This new Directorate will not only enforce the law professionally and courageously, it will be high on corruption prevention. It will engage government institutions, businesses, financial institutions, professional bodies, schools, markets, civil society organisations, traditional institutions, religious bodies and communities. It will educate stakeholders, build relationships and mobilise the people to own the fight against all forms of corrupt practices in the zone”, he said
He assured Nigerians that the EFCC would not relent in the pursuit of its mandate, recalling the achievements of the Commission in the last 34 months and describing them as impressive progress.
“The pursuit of our mandate has been our dominant engagement and in the past few years, we have made impressive progress. Between October 2023 and July 2026, the Commission received 49, 673 petitions, investigated 39, 615 cases, filed 14, 476 cases in court and secured 10, 872 convictions. This gives a conviction-to-filing ratio of 75.1 percent. In the first half of 2026 alone, we recorded 1, 370 convictions from 1, 889 filings. The Commission also recorded recoveries of N1, 233, 612, 040, 411. 11, $684, 478, 457. 32, £373, 905. 78, €9, 343, 803. 66 inn addition to recoveries in other currencies”, he said.
He noted that at the institutional level, the Commission has made radical reforms that have been yielding optimal results as there are consequential improvements in the agency’s processes and procedures, which partly explains the impacts the EFCC has made and will continue to make in all the matrices of law enforcement.
“Reforms that have strengthened the Commission during the period include new guidelines on arrest and bail, a review of sting operations, the establishment of the Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, the Security Department, the Immigration and Visa Section and the Cybercrime Rapid Response Centre”, he said.
While charging Ndi Anambra on whistleblowing, the anti-graft czar said that the Commission has established channels through which members of the public can submit petitions and provide information. He noted that the Commission’s Eagle Eye App allows citizens to provide details of suspected wrongdoing and makes the provision of an informant’s personal details optional. “However, whistleblowing must be responsible and based on facts. It must not become an instrument for settling scores”, he said.
EFCC
He thereafter said that Anambra and Imo States deserve effective and responsive institutional presence as they are renowned for enterprise, innovation, commerce and an extraordinary culture of industry, adding that these legitimate activities must be protected from fraud, cybercrime, money laundering, investment fraud, diversion of public resources and other forms of economic and financial crimes. “Therefore, our coming to Awka is beyond geographical expansion. It is about taking the mandate of the EFCC closer to the people and closer to the economic activities we are meant to protect”, he said.
In their remarks, His Excellencies, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of Anambra State and Senator Hope Uzodinma, Governor of Imo State said that they were pleased with the activities and management of the EFCC under the leadership of Olukoyede. They pledged their support to the Commission as it opened a new Zonal Directorate in their domain.
The commissioning of the new Directorate witnessed massive turn out of distinguished Nigerians, including members of the National Assembly, civil society organisations, community leaders, students, media among others.
Eereporter.com
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