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Adenike “Denike” Adekunle has never been known to sit back and wait for opportunity to knock. The Nigerian-born founder of the Lagos-based fortified foods initiative, Forti Foods, can trace her solutions-driven focus, natural talent for entrepreneurship and enterprising spirit way back to when she was a teenager at high school in Dublin, Ireland.
Her journey, as you will see, has been a blend of action and resourcefulness.
Forti Foods, which provides nutrient-rich ready-to-eat convenience meals, first and foremost to stave off food insecurity in Nigeria and uplift the vulnerable, has grown from Adekunle’s research and development (R& D) journey. This evolved from an interest in health and nutrition that unfolded during four years of biomedical studies in the UK and Ireland.
All of this bubbles in a merry mix (her energy and enthusiasm are contagious) with the idea that “the best way to bring people together is around food,” which in turn inspired three separate culinary business ventures in London. Creating authentic and what would be regarded as typical foods in Nigeria, were her focus for all three.
I spoke with Adekunle the day after her 31st birthday. Impressive, the volume of ups and downs and side-hustle adventures she has crammed into a relatively short space in time on her odyssey to date into fortified foods.
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” This pragmatic quote from Oprah came to mind when processing Adekunle’s story.
Fortified Foods Backstory
“London-based social entrepreneur,” is one of the descriptions that pops up when I Google this cosmopolitan young woman of Africa. “My parents wanted to give me the best head start by way of education they could,” she tells me when I ask her about the international journey that is now seeing her tackle food insecurity in Nigeria.
“My dad’s younger sister lives in Dublin, Ireland.” When Adekunle was eight years old, her parents sent her there for her schooling. “I was in Dublin from 2002 to 2014.” Initially at boarding school. Then living with her aunt, who became her guardian. Her parents visited often.
It was as a young teenager in high school that Adekunle got the first taste of her natural penchant for entrepreneurship. “I was super good at making scoobies (colorful little hand-knotted items often used as bracelets).” So she started a small informal business selling them.
In retrospect, she says, her parents’ decision to send her abroad for her education sparked what must have been a wellspring of independence waiting to burst forth.
Post-high school she spent two years “at Uni in Ireland doing biomed — back then I planned to study medicine.”
After two years, she and a friend decided to move to the UK. There, at a college in Greenwich, she did another two years of biomedical studies. “I couldn’t get a loan to complete my degree and left before my finals.” She and her friend were already, by then, involved in a side gig with a culinary focus.
Foods in Nigeria
Adekunle’s LinkedIn profile overviews her corporate journey in London, during which time she specialized in financial crime and regulatory and risk compliance, skills and expertise she continued to hone. But she lost her corporate job in June 2020 when left, right and center, COVID was knocking down everything that did and did not move.
Meanwhile, she and a friend had started the meal prep side gig geared toward young Nigerian professionals in London craving what would be typical foods in Nigeria. She had come across a company in London making pre-packaged jollof rice. She knew hers was better. More authentic and flavorful.
The pre-packaged convenience of the jollof sowed the seed for what would evolve when she realized she wanted to build something impactful and life-changing. What would grow into her fortified foods product line.
At the same time, a coming together of her experience in high-stakes financial environments, emerging market entrepreneurship — and that early academic background in health and nutrition.
Staple food in Nigeria
Two experiences, opposite ends of the abundance vs avoidance scale, came about after her corporate layoff. Both directly impacted Adekunle’s fortified foods journey and Forti Foods’ direction.
First, the “bad.” An outreach project in Nigeria with a nonprofit set up “to provide food to the less privileged,” was a wake-up. “I did a stint, technically a caterer, with them. When I received the budget, I saw a significant amount was to go to auxiliary expenses. Very little was being channeled into where it was meant to go, namely the food. Then, volunteers packaged the food and hygiene was not good. I wouldn’t have eaten it. And there was chaos when it got to the distribution.”
All in all, “it made me wary of nonprofits. It felt like we were doing more harm than good,” she recalls of the experience.
By contrast, the “good?”
After her job layoff, she was referred to the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) in London. She applied for admission to the sustainable program for start-ups they were offering. She was accepted and joined (virtually) in June 2020. It meant she had access to free learning sessions, inspiring speakers, a peer support network and a UK£1,500 grant.
“It helped me to see the bigger picture. It gave me a community of like-minded people, and a set of resources that were never available to me before,” she says.
Fortified Foods Research and Development
While on an R&D trip to Turkey researching packaging and working on her product (she has also done R&D in the UK, France and Malaysia), she came across an article on “hidden hunger.” She began researching this and referred me to the DSM website — purpose, people and pioneering science — which she found a great resource.
She read about fortified rice kernels. She learned how one could feel full, but not be getting essential nutrients from what one was eating. “We take food supplements,” she says. But this is something few “poor” people, as in poverty-stricken and impoverished, can afford to do.”
She realized, “Great, I can give people medicine through food and they won’t know it’s there.”
Especially important, she points out, in parts of Africa where there can be suspicion around medicine; an assumption that its purpose is to make people sterile or kill them off.
The vision was taking shape. To build a product that would have a real impact.
She saw she could align public health, food innovation and sustainable impact by creating a product line with essential nutrients, a long shelf life, easy storage — and requiring minimal preparation. Mitigating malnutrition in Nigeria and other African countries became a major driver.
Typical Foods in Nigeria
Meanwhile, she opened a franchise restaurant offering Nigerian food in Finchley Road, London. “I was hoping to make enough money to sponsor my dream.” Cool Nigerian food. A focus of the franchise was introducing Nigerian flavors to the global market.
The franchise project for her “became the equivalent of the most expensive MBA. I literally ran myself into the deep end,” she says with her charming disarming openness.
She got to learn, big time, about things like costs, pricing, marketing. “I struggled and in my books, failed.” She says she interprets it this way because she ended up selling back the franchise.
“But I’d built really good relationships. Someone had noticed.”
She was approached to open Cafe NG at the Nigerian High Commission in London. “It was a café, a cultural hub, powered by the franchise brand.”And, she says with satisfaction, “I made it successful and profitable. It’s still there.”
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Food Insecurity in Nigeria
“Late in 2023 when I decided to come back to Nigeria, to move back to Lagos, I returned committed to putting all my effort into my product.”
She knew categorically that she did not want to just sell food. She wanted to offer a unique product line encompassing all she had learned about fortified foods. She wanted to make a profound difference.
With the SSE grant money she had received back in London, she’d spent time in Nigeria making a research documentary focused on children, malnutrition and needs in a displacement camp, the result of insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria.
She had learned that certain foods, when distributed, were stolen and never reached those for whom the food was intended.
“But you give a simple finished product in a bag, like rice with micronutrients and other nutritional benefits, it gets to the people — the children — it’s intended for.”
She is still in the growth and development phase, testing out a facility for her “concept of good” in Lagos. She is in consultation with development agencies and regulatory government bodies. The recent disbandment of USAID has been a blow, but she is assessing alternatives.
Back to that Oprah quote about no struggle, no strength. Adekunle’s journey has been fueled by struggles, which she has taken in her stride. The Forti Foods success story she’s writing is a testimony to her strength.
“Convenience sells in Nigeria,” she says. And her products are convenient. “We currently have two recipes, each designed to deliver a balance of carbohydrates (from local staples), protein, vegetables, and essential micronutrients to address locally prevalent deficiencies.
“We recently completed a successful pilot, providing lunches for the children at a school.” If you look at their Instagram or Facebook you will see the happy faces of little children with their ready-to-eat hygienically packages little bags labeled jollof rice and fried rice.
“This initiative received excellent feedback on taste, convenience and impact. We are now exploring a ‘circular’ model in Lagos where (recycled) plastic can be exchanged for meals.” Thus integrating environmental impact and growing her expressed commitment “to create an ecosystem of good that uplifts and empowers.”
“We’ve evolved, we’re still evolving and I’m excited about the future of Forti Foods.” We are, too. Eager to watch her fortified foods change lives.
To learn more about Adekunle’s fortified foods (and to get sound nutritional advice), follow Forti Foods on Instagram and Facebook and visit the Forti Foods website for future developments.
