There was excitement among women participants in Umuahia, the state capital, on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at the capacity building organized by Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises, Niger Delta, LIFE-ND Project on the production of Tombrown meal to mitigate malnutrition in families and enhance income generation.
The women who could not hold back their emotions, praised Governor Alex Otti for his total commitment to the survival of LIFE-ND, a Project that endorsed government’s policy on food sufficiency, job creation and income generation for the teeming population of youth and women in the state.
Packaged samples of Tombrown product
Emphasizing on the essence of Tombrown meal, the State Project Coordinator, Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, Ph.D, revealed that the introduction of the food by International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, is to remind families of the basic nutritional content that should influence their daily food intake for healthy living, noting that the consumption has neither has age limit nor barrier;
“One of the essence of having nutrition mainstreaming unit in our system is to remind us of those basic nutritional content that our daily food intake should contain to determine that we’re feeding well or to say our food is balanced”, he said.
The State Coordinator, Uchenna Onyeizu, Ph.D, CEnv, addressing participants
He urged the women to be ambassadors of balanced dietary intake as they transfer the skill and pass the message to the grassroots in their various communities.
Addressing journalists, the resource person, Mrs Chinaza Okezie recommended Tombrown food for its high nutritious content for weaning babies of 2 months – 6 years, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, potent for invigorating energy of adults for high performance, efficient at recovering patients, and equally having the versatility to protect against birth defects and maternal health deficiencies.
Being easy to prepare, she commended its suitability for quick breakfast, providing the elderly the energy to cope with their busy schedules, helping mothers deficient of breast milk, to build sufficient nutritional requirements to feed their infants.
Considering the current prevalent economic downturn, she encouraged women to make income through the commercial opportunities provided by this highly nutritious food to sustain their families.
Mrs Hope Emmanuel, participant
A female participant, Mrs Hope Emmanuel of Isiala Ukwu Mbato Community, Obingwa Local Government, thanked the Project for preparing her to face the challenges of the prevailing hard economy, leveraging her to a source of income, promising to package the powdery Tombrown into affordable contents for distribution to health centres, maternity and elderly homes, adding that the community enterprise groups established by the LIFE-ND Project would assist both in decentralizing the training and marketing.
Nutrition Specialist, Goodluck Chibueze
In addition, the Project Nutrition Specialist, Mr Goodluck Chibueze, commended the women for easy assimilation of the production process, urging them to make fortune out of the enterprise.
The participants received inputs of grains – millet, corn, guinea corn, soybean, groundnuts, being ingredients for production of Tombrown, including plastic buckets for start-up package.
Group picture of participants
LIFE-ND Project, an IFAD-sponsored Project in collaboration with the Federal Government and Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been in the vanguard of food security, job creation and sustainable income across 100 communities in 10 Local Government Areas of the state since the year, 2020.
