Investing in nutrition: How capital can serve life and human flourishing

As many people look forward to celebrating Christmas with feasting and abundance, this guest post by Paavani Gupta and Catherine Le Côme Hamadou of Incofin feels very timely. It reminds us that for large parts of the world, people struggle to find enough nutritious food to eat – with enormous, long-term impacts on their health and that of their children. Yet this is an article with a positive message about how capital can play a significant role by helping to expand the availability of good food in the world's poorest communities. Incofin is an independent, emerging-markets-focused impact investment manager that is helping to address the nutrition gap through patient capital and practical support. It urges all values-driven investors, including faith-based asset owners, to think of nutrition as they develop their impact investing strategies.

The power of investing in nutrition

by Paavani Gupta and Catherine Le Côme Hamadou

Food security is a cornerstone of human development. Yet across sub-Saharan Africa nearly one in five people remain undernourished, and 72% of people are unable to afford a healthy diet.

This contributes towards micronutrient deficiencies, stunting (children being too short for their age) – as well as overweight and diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

These challenges have wide echoing repercussions – economic, social, environmental – as well as health-related. This is a worrying trend, especially because sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing regions, with 12 million youth expected to enter the labour market every year for the next three decades.

Well-nourished children learn more and earn more as adults and well-nourished mothers have safer pregnancies – with healthier bodies and stronger immune systems.

Good nutrition is key to children's learning and development

The opportunity

Local SMEs in Africa produce most of the nutritious foods sold in local communities and are responsible for 80% of the total calories in the region. International investors such as ourselves and our peers have been investing in food value chains focused on export markets for years, but we noticed a funding gap for those focused on local communities.

Local commercial banks typically hesitate to provide long-term funding for these SMEs or impose very heavy collateral structures that they can’t respond to. Meeting this challenge requires investors who seek not only financial returns, but shared prosperity – partners willing to nurture enterprises that feed both people and potential.

Addressing this gap requires innovative financing approaches and partnerships that unlock capital at scale. Closing the financing gap for local food SMEs isn’t just an opportunity, it’s a shared responsibility for a healthier, more resilient Africa.

Stewardship in action

1. Harnessing the power of blended finance – uniting capital to drive impact. Blended finance funds are an innovative solution that unites public, private and philanthropic capital in a force for good. It is crucial to create a structure that accommodates the risk-return expectations of diverse stakeholders, thus crowding in private capital sources (banks, family offices, foundations) with the support of a first loss tranche, where certain investors agree to absorb potential losses, making the investment more attractive to private investors.

2. Proving that nutrition is investable – translating compassion into catalytic capital. Financially sound investments can help demonstrate that investing in nutrition is not only impactful but also commercially viable, as in the case of microfinance where now significant volumes of private capital flow in.

3. Empowering SMEs along their growth journey – transforming potential into performance. Along with capital, it is vital to help SMEs through technical assistance. Nearly half of (48%) of SMEs in the region cite training and development support as key drivers for growth

Closing the nutrition gap requires creativity, courage, and collaboration. It calls for financial structures that blend catalytic and commercial capital so that every contribution, from public or private actors, can multiply its impact.

One example of this approach is the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F), developed by Incofin and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). It combines patient capital with practical support, helping local food enterprises strengthen their operations and better serve domestic markets. In doing so, it is designed to transform investment into an act of care – one that nourishes both people and planet.

Turning principles into practice

Good Nature Agro (GNA) is a Zambia-based enterprise, established in 2014, focused on the legume value chain. It produces high quality groundnut and bean seeds and commodities, which are distributed across Southern and Central Africa, including Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

Hands holding rice. Photograph: Incofin

GNA purchases seeds from a network of 15,000+ smallholder farmers across the country, while providing them with training on agronomy, financial literacy, access to finance, inputs, digital literacy, and group management.

GNA obtained a working capital loan from N3F for the purchase and trade of groundnuts (peanuts) and beans for human consumption, and technical assistance to explore biochar (a form of charcoal) production equipment and carbon credit monetisation.

GNA’s baseline data shows that the company is providing a unique and highly valued service to low-income farmers. Additionally, nearly 40% of these farm households consume groundnuts and beans from the seeds supplied by GNA, including feeding them to their infants and young children aged six months to 59 months (34%) and older children (82%). One in ten of these households consumes beans or groundnuts every day, with 17% of households reporting that beans and groundnuts from GNA seeds make up more than half of their household consumption.

Behind these figures are families who can now feed their children beans and groundnuts daily – a quiet transformation of hope into health. GNA’s experience illustrates how targeted finance and technical support can unlock both business growth and measurable nutrition gains.

Measuring impact

In just two years, N3F has reached 3 million consumers in sub-Saharan Africa through enterprises such as GNA, contributing to 645 million nutritious food servings, 44% of which are consumed by children. With ten investments now completed, N3F is driving a movement in sub-Saharan Africa to ensure that every household has access to affordable, nourishing food.

Our goal is to elevate nutrition as a central focus for all stakeholders – from governments and private institutions to service providers and local SMEs – ensuring it becomes a core criterion in every investment decision. Our partner, GAIN, has helped develop a framework that enables impact investors to identify, assess, and compare the nutrition impact potential of enterprises and projects. This makes it easier to integrate nutrition outcomes into investment strategies and track progress across portfolios.

Placing nutrition at the heart of finance

This is more than an investment story; it is an effort to reimagine how capital can serve life. When investors act with purpose, their capital becomes a force for renewal – sustaining both human potential and natural systems. By placing nutrition at the heart of finance, we can help build a world where growth and generosity feed one another.

• Incofin is an independent, emerging-markets-focused impact investment manager specialising in financial inclusion, the agri-food value chain and safe drinking water.

• FaithInvest network subscribers interested in learning more about Incofin may contact: investorrelations@incofin.com

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