EHA Impact Ventures puts $50,000 into Kebbi’s Ma’Zaine Foods for nutrition expansion

EHA Impact Ventures has invested $50,000 in Mainstream Lime-Light Ltd, the company behind Kebbi’s women-led Ma’Zaine Foods, to expand production and support a planned move into therapeutic food manufacturing. The financing is a convertible revenue-based loan, with repayments tied to the company’s business performance.

What the funding will do

Mainstream Lime-Light Ltd, which is based in Birnin Kebbi, will use the funds to buy equipment for its existing product lines and begin producing ready-to-use therapeutic food. The investment was announced during a facility tour attended by representatives of the Kebbi State Ministry of Health and the Kebbi State Investment Promotion Agency.

EHA Impact Ventures, a gender-lens investment firm under the EHA Group, said recovered capital from the loan will be available for investment in other women-led businesses. Ma’Zaine Foods will also receive technical assistance, strategic guidance and communications support.

The announcement did not specify when therapeutic food production would begin, the expected output or how the products would be distributed. Those details will help clarify the scale of the planned expansion and its potential reach.

Products, founder and plans

Ma’Zaine Foods was founded by Maryam Yakubu. It already produces Tom Brown cereal, date powder, sweet potato flour, baobab fruit powder, finger millet flour and date seed coffee. The company says its product range serves different consumer groups, including children and breastfeeding mothers. It also offers food processing training and manufacturing services to other businesses.

Yakubu said the funding would help the company increase capacity, reach more customers and create local opportunities. “Our mission has always been to make nutritious foods more accessible and affordable for families,” she said.

The investment will support both an established product range and a proposed new manufacturing activity, rather than the launch of an entirely new business.

Nutrition challenge and next steps

The planned expansion comes against persistent nutrition challenges in northern Nigeria, including Kebbi. EHA Impact Ventures said supporting production closer to the communities being served could improve access to nutrition products while creating economic opportunities.

Its chief executive, Evelyn Castle, said the firm invests in women entrepreneurs addressing problems they understand through their experience of living and working in those communities. She described Ma’Zaine Foods as part of wider efforts to expand locally produced nutrition options for children and families.

For the Kebbi business, the immediate priority is translating the financing into equipment and additional production capacity. Whether that expansion makes products more affordable and accessible will depend on implementation, pricing and the company’s ability to reach households and institutional buyers.

Separately, 50 Nigerian founders have been selected to receive a combined N285 million in non-dilutive funding under the Founders Lab Cohort 1 programme, an initiative of the Federal Government’s Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) Programme. The programme is delivered through the iDICE Startup Bridge and implemented by the Bank of Industry (BOI), to help idea-stage entrepreneurs move from concepts to viable and sustainable businesses.