Posted on October, 2, 2018 at 09:13 am
OVER 200 delegates, including dealmakers, entrepreneurs and investors, expected to meet at the Nutrition Africa Investor Forum (NAIF) in Nairobi this October 16 to 17 to explore partnerships, access business finance and enter new markets.
Over the two days, on the occasion of World Food Day, selected small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from across Africa will have opportunities to participate in the first ever Scaling Up Nutrition Pitch Competition as well as The Nutrition Dealroom to meet venture capitalist and business financiers to improve their access to finance.
NAIF is first-of-a-kind event primarily mean to position nutrition as a promising new investment area. It will bring together leaders from commerce, agri-food, development agencies, academia along with investors to share the experiences, present research results, explore collaborations and spark off new ideas- all with the aim of developing new projects and attracting investment for high-impact nutrition businesses. Malnutrition affects millions of children across the world.
Africa alone has estimated that it is home 58.7 million children under age of five who are stunted- having a low height for a given age and the 13.8 million who are wasting, that is, have a low weight for a certain height. There is no doubt stunted children today will lead to stunted economies of tomorrow.
In fact, African nations lose between 1.9 per cent and 16 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) annually to undernutrition owing to increased mortality, absenteeism, chronic illness, and loss productivity.
There is a central role for business in tackling malnutrition in Africa, explains Fokko Wientjes vice president of nutrition in emerging markets and public-private partnerships at Royal DSM.
“Scaling up nutrition action delivers at least $16 in returns on investment for every $1 spent, nutrition-sensitive capital investment along the entire food chain are likely to represent a tremendous purpose-driven investment opportunity ,” said Wietjes, adding:
“We will fundamentally integrate SDG 1 (poverty reduction) with SDG 2 (hunger & nutrition) by producing locally, Africa nourishes Africa.” Africa's demographic dividend is also an opportunity, Wientjes reveals, noting: “There are more than 1 billion people in the current African consumer market.
This is expected to increase to more than 2 billion by 2050.” He says that, with 226 million people aged between 15 and 25 years oh, the continent also has the youngest population in the world.
“This represents enormous potential: a young growing African consumer market that is more health-conscious, favoring nutritious and healthy foods,” “Emerging market are the fastest urbanizing countries in the world.
They are moving away from subsistence and smallholder farming and with that separating the producer from the consumer,” says Wientjes. SMEs and smallholder farmers constitutes the bulk of the actors in the food system in developing and emerging markets.
They play a key role as input suppliers, off-takers, processors, and distributors, this further creating jobs and enhancing regional economic growth. Yet, barriers to accessing finance mean that agri-food SMEs are not achieving their full potential in developing and scaling up market-based solutions that can improve the consumption of self and nutritious foods.
The Nairobi event will also host two engagements channels determined to facilitate partnerships between high-impact nutrition businesses and venture capitalists and financiers.
The Nutrition Dealroom will bring investors face to face with established small and medium growing businesses. This transaction and deal-making platform will showcase Africa's fastest growing enterprises working to improve nutrition in a sustainable and scalable way, with a view to achieving tangible results by matching a curated portfolio of investment-ready companies with private sector investors.
Secondly, the first Africa edition of the Scaling Up Nutrition Pitch competition will be launched, organized by the Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network (SBN), an initiatives of GAIN and the UN World Food Programme, plus local partners the competition seeks to showcase investment opportunities presented by SMEs working to improve access to nutritious food.
Out of more than 450 outstanding entries, 21 SMEs have been shortlisted from national pitch competition in Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia.
The entrepreneurs will pitch their innovative nutritional investment opportunities to a panel of influential judges. The judges will then select the overall winner who will be awarded with the title of SBN Nutrition Champion, which includes a travel and technical assistance prize. In addition, other top performing finalists stand a chance of winning cash and technical assistance award contributed by partners.
“Through years of experience working with Africa partners and governments, I am convinced that if we grow and support high-impact businesses in food systems in Africa, we will be able to make inroads to reducing malnutrition,” said GAIN’S Dr Haddad adding: “The potential is huge if we can get the investment recipe right.”
GAIN was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition, working with partners, it is meant to make healthier food choices more affordable more available and more desirable.
The organization's purpose is to improve nutrition outcomes by improving the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially the most vulnerable.
Royal DSM is meanwhile a purpose-led, global science-based company active in nutrition, health and sustainable living. It is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for stakeholder.
The film delivers innovative business solutions for human nutrition, animal nutrition, personal care and aroma, medical devices, green products and applications, and new mobility and connectivity.
Hosted by GAIN and the UN World food Programme, the SBN mobilizes business to support the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.
At the heart of the Movement are 60 national governments across Africa, Asia and Latin America committed to developing a multi-stakeholder approach to ending malnutrition through national action plan-including businesses.
The SBN supports business at a global and national level to act and invest responsibly in improving nutrition with partners from governments, civil society, donors and the United Nations.
Source: IPP Media