For decades, nutrition has been boxed in as a social or humanitarian concern, mostly in the domain of charities, aid agencies, and government welfare programmes. Important, yes, but often perceived as a cost to be managed, not an opportunity to be cultivated. Yet, this narrow view has come at a price. Poor nutrition doesn’t just weaken the bodies; it weakens the economies by reducing workforce productivity, stunting cognitive development, and costing developing nations up to 10% of GDP annually in lost potential (World Bank, 2023). But the narrative is changing.
Today, a broader perspective is emerging through the concept termed “Nutrition Economy”. As defined in this article, nutrition economy refers to the dynamic system of production, distribution, consumption, and innovation of nutritious foods and nutrition-sensitive services. It functions as an integrated economic sector that generates income, creates jobs, drives value-added innovation, and strengthens human capital while improving populations’ nutrition and health.
While nutrition economics has traditionally examined the cost–benefit relationship between nutrition and health systems, the emerging concept of the nutrition economy takes this analysis further. It broadens the lens to capture the entire ecosystem that links nutritious food, health, innovation, and enterprise. In this new framing, nutrition is not merely a health intervention, but an economic sector that generates income, creates jobs, and drives industrial transformation.
Across Nigeria and other developing nations, this shift is already visible. A “nutrition economy” is taking shape. It is where food and health are no longer treated only as welfare concerns but as strategic growth industries that power human capital and economic competitiveness.
Entrepreneurs are finding new value in nutrition-smart innovations: from locally manufactured fortified staples that reach mass markets, to biofortified crops and home-grown production of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) that save lives while creating jobs. The rise of cold-chain logistics, agri-fintech, and digital health platforms is linking smallholder farmers, processors, and retailers in ways that we have never seen before.
This shift is more than a moral imperative; it is a market revolution. As consumer awareness grows and public-private partnerships expand, the demand for nutritious, affordable, and safe food is becoming one of the most dynamic frontiers of economic growth in Africa. In Nigeria, where malnutrition costs billions annually in healthcare and productivity losses, every new investment in nutrition is a double dividend because it fuels business expansion and human development at once.
The moment for smart investors and business leaders is no more tomorrow, but now! The world’s fastest-growing economies are no longer just competing on infrastructure or energy, they are competing on human capital, and at the heart of that capital lies good nutrition.
- Nutrition as an economic driver
Nutrition today is no longer just about feeding people, it is about fueling potentials. It is the foundation upon which nations build human capital, productivity, and industrial growth. A well-nourished population learns better, earns more, and contributes meaningfully to innovation and economic resilience.
Globally, nutrition sector sits at the intersection of food, health, and enterprise. The potential is vast but so is the cost of inaction. Poor nutrition continues to erode economic gains, with recent analyses showing that malnutrition reduces individual earnings, weakens workforce participation, and drives up healthcare costs (IRPJ, 2024).
For developing economies like Nigeria, this isn’t just a social concern, it is a matter of national competitiveness. A workforce burdened by stunting, anemia, or hidden hunger cannot sustain productivity or innovation. By contrast, when people are nourished, economies grow stronger from the ground up.
The evidence is overwhelming. Investments in child nutrition particularly in the first 1,000 days of life deliver some of the highest returns in development economics, with each dollar invested yielding up to $16 in economic benefits through improved health, education, and lifetime earnings (Nigeria Health Watch, 2024).
Nutrition is not charity, but strategy for smart economic investment that multiplies returns across sectors: from agriculture and education to healthcare and industrial productivity. For policymakers and investors alike, building a nutrition-smart economy isn’t just good for people but also good for business.
2. From farms to factories: The rise of nutrition enterprises
The nutrition value chain in developing countries like Nigeria is no longer just about food security, it is a frontier of enterprise, innovation, and investment. From the farm gate to the factory floor, a quiet revolution is taking shape, one that connects agriculture, health, and business in powerful new ways.
Across Nigeria, local entrepreneurs and global partners are proving that nutrition-focused ventures can be both impactful and profitable, building sustainable industries while improving lives.
Biofortified and Nutrient-Enriched Crops: The work of HarvestPlus has been pivotal in linking farmers to nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Through its programmes, Nigeria now grows and consumes biofortified vitamin A cassava, maize, iron pearl millet and orange-fleshed sweet potato. This is helping to reducing hidden hunger among millions of households. These nutrient-rich crops are not only improving diets, they are creating new agri-business opportunities in seed systems, processing, and nutritious food markets. For consecutive eleven years, HarvestPlus in collaboration with major other partners such as the Federal & State Ministries of Agriculture & Food Security, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (now the Gates Foundation), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the UK Government funded Propcom+ project among others consistently organize nutritious food fair which is a major contributor to the growing nutrition economy in Nigeria.
The HarvestPlus Nutritious Food Fair is more than a showcase. It is a dynamic marketplace and policy-shaping platform for Nigeria’s growing nutrition economy. From farmers cultivating biofortified crops to SMEs producing biofortified and fortified foods, it bridges innovation with income and nutrition with growth. By driving sales, partnerships, and public awareness, the fair strengthens livelihoods, fuels agribusiness, and demonstrates that investing in nutritious food is an investment in Nigeria’s economy.
Fortified Staples and Value-Added Processing: The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) continues to strengthen Nigeria’s food fortification landscape by partnering with millers, processors, and regulators to ensure that commonly consumed foods like flour, oil, and salt are fortified with essential micronutrients. This model shows how public-private collaboration can deliver both public health impact and market competitiveness (GAIN, 2024).
Cold-Chain Logistics and Post-Harvest Innovation: Nigeria loses up to 40% of its perishable foods before they reach consumers, mainly due to poor storage and transport infrastructure. This loss represents a major business opportunity. Investments in solar-powered cold rooms, refrigerated transport, and digital warehousing systems are now gaining traction. The FAO (2024) notes that post-harvest innovation could dramatically improve food quality, reduce waste, and enhance rural livelihoods (FAO Open Knowledge, 2024).
Agri-Fintech and Health-Tech Platforms: Digital solutions are redefining how we connect agriculture to nutrition. Agri-fintech innovators are providing smallholder farmers with access to credit, insurance, and transparent market pricing, while health-tech startups are deploying mobile tools to monitor nutrition outcomes, track fortified food reach, and improve consumer trust (arXiv, 2024).
These examples reveal a powerful transformation currently ongoing in the country: nutrition is shifting from being donor-driven to market-led. What was once seen as aid is now recognized as enterprise. Entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers alike are discovering that doing good for people’s nutrition can also mean doing well for business and that the next wave of Africa’s economic growth will be powered not just by calories, but by quality nutrition.
3. Investment pathways for impact and profit
The nutrition economy represents one of the most dynamic frontiers for inclusive growth across developing nations. In Nigeria, investors and policymakers are starting to see nutrition not as philanthropy, but as a profitable sector with measurable social impact. To fully unlock this potential, the country needs innovative financing and long-term business models that make nutrition both viable and scalable.
Below are four key investment pathways that are shaping this new frontier:
Anchor procurement contracts
Public procurement remains one of the most effective ways to create predictable demand and de-risk nutrition investments. Federal and state-level programmes such as the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme and Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) are powerful market anchors. For example, the Federal Government’s partnership with UNICEF in 2024 helped multiple local suppliers to provide fortified school meals and therapeutic foods to thousands of children, which ensures consistent off-take for small processors. By integrating local sourcing requirements into public contracts, these programmes stimulate job creation, supply chain growth, and private investment confidence (UNICEF, 2024).
Blended finance for SMEs in nutrition and biofortification
Many promising nutrition-focused SMEs struggle with limited access to affordable capital. Blended finance combining public funds, concessional loans, and private equity is helping to bridge this gap. Eenterprises like AFEX, Releaf, BIC Farms, and Babban Gona are leveraging agri-fintech and impact investment models to promote nutrient-enriched crops through customized value-chain approaches. These models are redefining how blended finance accelerates food and nutrition innovation in Africa’s most promising markets.
Scaling up nutrition value chains
Investing in the “missing middle” of the food system which are processing, packaging, storage, traceability, and logistics creates opportunities for both returns and resilience. A growing number of Nigerian startups are entering cold-chain logistics, solar-powered storage, and nutrient-preserving packaging. By modernizing these value chains, investors can help to reduce the 40% post-harvest loss currently estimated by the FAO (2024), while tapping into fast-growing consumer markets for nutritious and safe food.
Measuring outcomes and returns on investment
Today’s investors are increasingly impact-conscious. Fortunately, Nigeria is strengthening its nutrition data infrastructure, allowing funders to monitor both business performance and social impact. Platforms like DataDENT and the National Food Systems Dashboard are providing integrated metrics on production, consumption, and coverage across states (DataDENT, 2024). This transparency helps to de-risk capital, attract blended finance, and ensure accountability for results.
For development finance institutions (DFIs) and policymakers, nutrition must now be recognized as a strategic investment class, which fuels productivity, health, and growth simultaneously.
For the private sector, it is a growth market waiting to be scaled through innovation and finance.
Nutrition is no longer only in the domain of aid but also a new generation of economic opportunity where doing good aligns with doing well.
4. How to build an inclusive nutrition economy
To make Nigeria’s emerging nutrition economy both sustainable and equitable, inclusion must sit at its core. Nutrition-driven growth cannot thrive if smallholder farmers, women, youths, and local innovators are left behind. Building inclusivity into this sector ensures that prosperity and good nutrition reaches every community.
Here are what an inclusive nutrition economy should look like:
Linking Smallholder Farmers to Nutrition Value Chains
The majority of Nigeria’s food comes from smallholder farmers, yet most are disconnected from markets for high-value, nutrition-sensitive crops. An inclusive system connects these farmers to biofortified seed networks, processing facilities, and institutional buyers through fair contract farming, digital platforms and farmer cooperatives. Organizations like HarvestPlus is already integrating smallholders into active networks which is enhancing both farm income and food quality. The result is that rural producers become active participants in the nutrition economy, and not just suppliers at the margins.
Empowering Women and Youth Entrepreneurs
Across Africa, women form the backbone of local food systems leading in food processing, marketing, and household nutrition decisions. In Nigeria, women-led SMEs and youth innovators are increasingly driving nutrition impact through agro-processing, packaging, and retail of biofortified foods programmes like GAIN’s Business Accelerator on Nutrition, and Tony Elumelu Foundation are supporting women-owned enterprises with training, small grants, and investment matchmaking. These interventions don’t just empower individuals, they multiply community resilience, improve dietary diversity, and expand the talent base of Nigeria’s agri-food industry.
Incentivizing Local Manufacturing and Innovation
For inclusive growth, policies must reward local production of nutritious foods and ingredients. Governments can play a catalytic role by offering tax incentives, import duty reliefs, and public procurement preferences for locally manufactured biofortified and fortified products.
By doing so, policymakers create a level playing field for domestic investors while reducing dependency on imported fortified goods. This results to a stronger food sovereignty, more jobs, and a more self-sufficient nutrition economy.
Ensuring Quality, Safety, and Consumer Trust
As the nutrition market expands, transparency and regulatory oversight become critical. Consumers must be confident that fortified or biofortified foods are safe, effective, and genuinely nutritious. Strengthening national food safety standards, enforcing compliance, and improving certification systems are vital steps. Collaboration between the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), NAFDAC, and private manufacturers is already improving quality assurance processes. Public awareness campaigns backed by civil society and the media also help the consumers to make informed and healthy choices.
Building an inclusive nutrition economy is not just about producing better food, it is about creating fairer opportunities, strengthening local capacity, and ensuring that every stakeholder from farmer to entrepreneur, to policymaker has a stake in the nation’s well-being.
Fueling Progress: The Call to Invest in Nigeria’s Nutrition Economy
Nigeria’s nutrition economy represents one of the most powerful “win-win” opportunities of our time. It leads to better health and nutrition for people, stronger businesses and jobs for the private sector, and a more resilient economy for the nation. The case for investment could not be clearer as nutrition is no longer only a welfare cost; but a growth catalyst and cornerstone for innovation, industrial expansion, and human capital development.
It is time to stop seeing nutrition only as an expense on the social ledger and start seeing it also as a multiplier for economic transformation. Each stakeholder has a crucial role to play in shaping this future:
For Investors: Recognize nutrition as a growth market, not a philanthropic niche. From fortified food production to logistics, agri-fintech, and biofortified crop value chains, the sector offers stable demand, policy backing, and strong impact potential. Investments in nutrition are investments in productivity, stability, and long-term consumer markets.
For Entrepreneurs: Build products, services, and value chains that deliver nutritious foods at scale. This will make it affordable, accessible, and locally sourced. Whether through biofortification, large scale fortification, post-harvest innovation, or digital traceability, entrepreneurs can turn nutrition into the next frontier of African enterprise.
For Policymakers: Create the enabling environment where nutrition-focused businesses can thrive. This means clear regulation, fiscal incentives, and anchor demand through public procurement especially in school feeding, maternal health, and emergency nutrition programmes. Every dollar invested in good nutrition today saves many more in future healthcare and productivity losses.
For Development Partners: Continue to de-risk investments through blended finance, provide technical expertise, and scale proven solutions. Support governments and businesses with evidence, data, and technology that make nutrition markets more efficient and accountable.
Nutrition is no longer just about feeding people, but also fueling progress. It is about raising a generation that is healthier, smarter, and more productive. In this lies Nigeria’s greatest opportunity: to lead Africa’s next phase of inclusive economic growth, powered not just by oil or infrastructure, but by nourishment, resilience, and human potential.
The future is being built today from every biofortified grain to every empowered farmer. Let us invest in the nutrition economy, and nourish Nigeria’s future together.
Dr Aremu Fakunle is a Senior Agribusiness and Public Policy Expert based in Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached via fakunle2014@gmail.com
