Two companies get US$25,000 support
The Village Capital has donated US$25,000 as its financial support to two food processing companies in the just ended Affordable Nutrition Forum in Accra. The two entities, Finer Foods from Ghana and Baby Grubz from Nigeria were presented with US$15,000 and US$10,000 respectively to help expand their operations.
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Up to 10 selected enterprises participated in the day of business development and investment readiness training programme.
Speaking to the Graphic Busines after the forum, the Regional Manager of Village Capital Sub-Saharan Africa, Mrs Lia Maykia said although West African economies were growing rapidly, nutrition for children still lagged behind.
“While the demand for healthier food products was growing across the African continent, a lack of local production, disconnected supply chains and inefficient distribution makes it difficult for healthy food products to reach the right people at the right price,” he said.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 57 per cent of children under five in Ghana are anemic, 23 per cent are stunted and 30,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition annually.
She observed that this do not just affect children physically—it affects their ability to concentrate and focus in the classroom which ultimately leads to poor results.
“We know that today’s children are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and leaders,” he added.
According to her, the Village Capital does not just seek the next best idea, invention or business; they also seek innovators who are solving real global problems.
Since its establishment, the Village Capital has supported over 600 entrepreneurs across 40 programmes in nine countries. It also has experience in sourcing, training and investing in seed-stage entrepreneurs with business solutions to major global problems.
“Village Capital is proud to partner The Hershey Company to bring you 10 of the most promising ventures working to make nutrition more affordable for West African communities,” she added.
Expansion drive
The Executive Director of Finer Foods, Mrs Emefa Odam said the funds would be injected into the Finer Foods to expand its operations across the West African Sub-region.
She explained that the Finer Foods had not been able to meet the huge demand in the market due to the smaller nature of its production capacity.
“So this financial support will help us to improve our production capacity from two tonnes to about 15 tonnes every day,” the executive director indicated
“We produce fortified cereal which is nutrient dense, tasty and very affordable for all manner of people. Our target customers are pregnant women, babies, breastfeeding mothers and convalescents,” she added.