Healthy Choice MPCS

 

Conversations about food’s potential to be instrumental to economic growth in Africa are becoming more audible thanks to programs of Healthy Choice MPCS. Recently featured in Africa Business Communities, the continent-wide news tracking media outlet, Healthy Choice MPCS was showcased as an organization on a mission to provide education and tools to the public and especially youth to help maximize the economic value of post-harvest agricultural products in their midst for self employment. In an era where employment opportunities are a hot-button issue in countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, Healthy Choice MPCS serves as a practical voice on what to do with Africa’s agricultural products once they are farmed, fished and harvested. The organization provides education on bringing the continent’s agricultural products to market after processing, preparation and packaging under the direction of its founder, veteran food processor and exporter Christiana Ebisi.

 

The founder, who began her career as a dietician and nutritionist in the United States after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, started the first food export  business of African foods to the U.S., Caribbean and Europe in the 1980′s and in 1986 helmed the United Nations-sponsored African Foods Research that took her to several countries across West and Central Africa to document Africa’s many foods. In continuing a legacy of adding value to post-harvest agricultural products in Africa for job creation, Ebisi’s Healthy Choice MPCS continues to work with the public and partner organizations to educate on the value and many uses of foods grown on the continent.

Healthy Choice MPCS, the food skills training organization founded by international food professionals to help Nigerians maximize use of foods grown by farmers and provide entrepreneurial opportunities to jobseekers in the hospitality and food industry, has expanded its food preservation and training initiative.

The food preservation and training initiative gives free and low-cost instruction in food processing quality control to small-scale food producers looking to raise the value of the food products they bring to market. Christiana Ebisi, founder of Healthy Choice MPCS and a retired American food business owner who operated her business in the U.S. for many years remarked, “As the middle class in this country grows, so too does their taste for a higher quality product. To capture the attention of upscale customers, food producers must have a superior product and we are helping them put superior food products on the market.”

Ebisi knows food very well. She moved to the United States to study the subject at university in the 1970′s and was hired to supervise food programs for the Metropolitan Medical Center in the state of Minnesota. She founded a company exporting African foods and other products internationally in the 1980′s and faced one challenge in the beginning-quality control. “While we received many orders from all across the world, I found that if I was not present when the shipment left the dock, I could not guarantee if sand was in a batch of bitter leaf. I had to be present for everything and train on quality control measures which matched the expectations of buyers overseas,” Ebisi said.

Years later, the customers who require top quality food product are not in foreign countries, but right here. “Customers have many options, including imported foods. We are helping farmers and food producers on ground secure their share of the food industry by providing customers with a superior food product and that comes with education,” Ebisi said. Healthy Choice MPCS is helping job seekers in food and hospitality create winning entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves based on international food industry know-how.

Healthy Choice MPCS is working on a number of exciting initiatives to further job creation in the food and hospitality industry and is expanding relationships with other organizations in the country to do so. “We have received interest from agencies looking to partner with us on training their staff/ their students for entrepreneurial careers in the food industry,” Ebisi mentioned. “We look forward to sharing our technical knowledge through winning skills acquisition programs.”

To learn more about Healthy Choice MPCS and our programs for entrepreneurship and economic development through food, please visit the website www.healthychoicempcs.org

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) brought together investors, food industry and policy stakeholders at the 1st. Cassava Investment Forum, a conference held in Abuja to discuss the role of cassava in Nigeria’s economic future. Chairman of NEPAD Business Group Nigeria (NBGN) Chris Ezeh, who was represented by Dr. Nike Akande, emphasized the need to increase cassava yields. “It is a food security crop that can transform the economy,” his statement read. Nigeria grows over 50 million tonnes of cassava annually, with most of the commodity crop earmarked for human consumption. With the aim of strengthening Nigeria’s already premiere position as the world leader in cassava production, NBGN officials urged the federal government to strengthen partnerships with the private sector in order to streamline further development of the cassava value chain. Private firms, represented by executives including Nino Albert Ozara of Honeywell Flour Mills sought to learn about new product potential for their flour while research, policy and product development experts including Christiana Ebisi, Executive Director of Healthy Choice MPCS, assessed strategies to build consumer interest and new product possibilities for a variety of locally grown food crops. “At the end of the day,” Ms. Ebisi said, “success for the food industry is measured by the creation of food products that consumers love to buy, farmers make a good living from growing and the public derives nutrition when eating.” Showing support for the economic growth potential for farmers through cassava production was Abimbola Okoya, General Manager of British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation. Ms. Okoya shared her foundation’s commitment to supporting rural farmers by encouraging their mobilization and group formation as a precursor to qualification for funds set aside for youth and women farmers. Nigeria’s Bank of Agriculture also expressed support in this endeavor, setting aside 900 million Naira for women and youth entrepreneurs interested in the agro-related sector, according to Waziri Ahmadu, Executive Director, Bank of Agriculture.