Photography: Millicent Agidipo/Achiever Foods Limited, Charmaine Ramalope/Black Mamba Chilli and Rubia Jablon/Blooms and Vegetables
Turning the Tide for Entrepreneurs on the Continent African Food Changemakers builds community for collaboration and entrepreneurial success.
By Ruksana Hussain (@ruksanah)
W
hen African Food Changemakers (AFC) was established as a nonprofit in Nigeria with the goal of nourishing Africa and changing global narratives about African food, founder and executive chair Ndidi Nwuneli had a clear purpose—to build a community of collaboration for entrepreneurial success. This also included ensuring this purpose didn’t just echo across the continent but resounded globally, announcing that Africa is ready for business and African food can nourish the world.
Uplifting African Brands and Businesses With more than 15 years of experience working in food and agriculture, Nwuneli experienced the struggle to scale through her own businesses. When identifying the problems, which she captured in her book, “Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses,” she found the same issue everywhere; entrepreneurs felt isolated and didn’t have collaborators for support. They needed assistance with funding, knowledge, training and navigating the entrepreneurship journey. AFC was created in 2022 to do just that, combining two organizations—Nourishing Africa and Changing Narratives Africa—with similar goals Nwuneli had previously established. 43 CUISINE NOIR | ANNUAL 2023/2024
“Our vision from the onset was a million entrepreneurs from Africa that are successful locally and globally. We are creating a community of dynamic and successful agri/food entrepreneurs and amplifying their voices,” says Nwuneli. AFC assists food and agriculture entrepreneurs across Africa in building resilient and sustainable businesses by providing training, support, access to funding and markets and increasing their visibility and impact. Members are from 37 African countries, including 2,500 active businesses on the portal, 15,000+ entrepreneurs receiving training and more than 150,000 others receiving resources weekly. Sustainability training programs include Building Resilience Against Climate and Environmental Shocks (BRACE), Scaling Export Program (SEP), Youth in Agrifood Export Development Program (YAEDP) and the Leading African Women in Food Fellowship (LAWFF). AFC also produces Narrative Changers food spotlights and podcast episodes on ingredients such as rooibos, okra, teff, coffee and cacao, curates events such as the Harvard Food Festival and released a short documentary on jollof rice to build awareness about Africa’s contributions to the global food ecosystem. “Our impact will be limited if we only focus on building the capacity of the entrepreneurs and enhancing their business WWW.CUISINENOIRMAG.COM 43
