Mozambican companies are “ready to receive investment” in the nutrition sector – GAIN

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Mozambican companies are “ready to receive investment” in the nutrition sector – GAIN

1:14 CAT | 15 Oct 2018

File photo: For illustration purposes only

Mozambican agribusiness companies are “ready to receive investment” and focus on the development of nutritious and affordable food to consumers, Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition (GAIN) country director Katia Santos Dias says.

According to Dias, the team going to the 1st Investment Forum for Nutrition in Africa (NAIF) in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday and Wednesday, will advertise this potential and demonstrate that there is a wide range of “companies that are ready to receive investment”.

The Mozambican delegation includes five small and medium enterprises that were selected for presenting to potential investors out of a set of 60. Most companies are looking for $100,000-$250,000 worth of investment, but JAM, which produces instant potatoes, is hoping to raise more than $1 million.

“We identified more than 100 companies that wanted to go to NAIF. We cannot take them all, but we want to demonstrate that investing in nutrition has several advantages, namely providing more nutritious food in the medium and long term and making it more accessible to the consumer,” Dias said. Thirty percent of Mozambicans have a “very monotonous” diet based on carbohydrates, such as cassava, which does not guarantee adequate nutrition.

The forum is also an opportunity to attract investment to Mozambique and open more doors to companies.

“Access to finance in Mozambique is very complicated for SMEs, especially if they are based outside Maputo and other the decision making centres,” Dias notes. Interest rates can reach 50% per year, which “kills business immediately”.

GAIN is a Swiss multinational organisation that mobilises public and private funds through partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian and Dutch governments, and British and US development aid agencies, among others.

The initiative, launched in 2002 by the United Nations, aims to improve nutrition by intervening throughout the food chain, from producer to consumer.

According to Katia Santos Dias, one of the aspects that most distinguishes GAIN, which has an office opened in Mozambique since 2013, is the way it values the private sector.

After launching the so-called Nutritive Food Market, which has invested more than three million Euros to improve the productive capacity of 23 food companies over four years, other projects are now coming down the pipeline.

One of the big commitments is to intervene in the eggs value chain and increase their consumption in Mozambique, investing in companies “that are ready to take a qualitative and quantitative leap”

GAIN is also working with the Mozambican Ministry of Health to implement a pilot project to improve nutrition in the labour force.

Source: Lusa