Emporium Reporters: FG, ATNi Push Nutrition 774 as Engine for Food Industry, MSME Growth
16 September 2026The Federal Government, in collaboration with the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNi), has moved to reposition the Nutrition 774 Initiative as a major driver of food industrialisation, MSME development, private investment and job creation across Nigeria.
The initiative will see the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) develop a Unified “Trade” Sector Nutrition Strategic Plan and conduct a nationwide mapping of private-sector capabilities to identify bottlenecks and unlock investment and local value addition across the food and nutrition value chain.
Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at a High-Level Private Sector Roundtable Engagement on Nutrition, themed, “Nutrition as a Critical Lever of Nigeria’s Food Industrialization and MSME Competitiveness.”
Enoh said the Federal Government was shifting the perception of nutrition from being primarily a health or humanitarian concern to recognising it as an industrial and economic priority with implications for productivity, enterprise development, domestic manufacturing and wealth creation.
He said the proposed strategic plan would align with the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035, Nigeria Industrial Policy and the Vice President’s Nutrition 774 Initiative, while promoting stronger collaboration among relevant government agencies.
According to him, Nigeria’s agricultural resources, including cassava, legumes, cocoa, oil palm, cashew and biofortified crops, provide the raw materials required to build competitive domestic food industries and produce affordable, nutritious and high-value products.
The minister called for targeted technical assistance, modern processing equipment and accessible financing to enable MSMEs to expand, while identifying Cluster Facility Centres as important platforms for improving food processing, hygienic handling, packaging and quality standards.
He also urged food manufacturers to integrate nutrition into their commercial strategies through increased use of locally sourced and biofortified raw materials, improved product formulations and expanded production of affordable fortified foods.