Beyond Child Nutrition: Augustsecrets to create 2000 jobs in Mushroom value chain

AugustSecrets, in collaboration with the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), has initiated the MushWealth Project with the objective of creating employment opportunities for 2,000 women and youth within Nigeria’s mushroom value chain.

The Chief Executive Officer of AugustSecrets, a child & family nutrition company, Oluwatoyin Onigbanjo stated that the goal of the Project was to advocate for more investment women empowerment and child nutrition as a path to improved economic growth. Onigbanjo, made the announcement at the training programme organised for women & youth mushroom farmers for the MushWealth Project recently organised by the company.

The MushWealth Project is an entrepreneurship-led job creation project targeted at youths and women 18-35 and co-funded by the Netherlands Government under the CFYE by the Palladium Group.

As a nutrition-focused food company, we manufacture healthy packaged cereals for young children and families. In our search for more sustainable high protein sources, we realised the opportunity and market gap with mushrooms.
Mushrooms are rich in proteins, amino acids and potassium that are great micronutrients for brain and body development. They can also be used for much more than cooking and eating them. Mushrooms can be used for teas, supplements, cosmetics and medicine

The goal of the Project is to train 2000 new and existing mushroom farmers aged 18-35 with technical, digital, and business skills and also expose them to these opportunities to grow and process mushrooms as a business, supply AugustSecrets for new products as well as other organizations and markets.

We created the MushWealth Project to tap into the market opportunity and assure steady input supplies as well as empower 2000 women and youth which is also a huge part of our impact goals and mission as a company,

This is inspired by our commitment to adding creative value to African superfoods to provide nutritious foods for young children & families while also creating jobs for women and youth. She said.

She mentioned that over two years, 2000 youths (80% women) will pass through the training program and at least 1600 of them will begin and grow their mushroom businesses.

According to a new report by Grand View Research, the global mushroom market size was valued at 50.3 billion dollars in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 per cent from 2022 to 2030. The global demand for mushrooms has witnessed significant growth in recent years, driven by an increasing population demanding protein-rich, vegan and specialised diets.

The report stated that Nigeria however needs to build its capacity in order to meet local and global demands, with a current deficit of about 1000 tonnes annually.

Onigbanjo mentioned that the poor awareness of the opportunities with mushrooms, inadequate technical guidance, limited post-harvest processing options, lack of trained research and extension personnel, poor market organization and market linkages were some of the challenges faced with the sector.

She added that the vision of the project is to transform the lives of women and youth by providing decent employment, while also contributing to reduce the burden of malnutrition, and increasing the awareness and opportunities in the mushroom value chain as a sought-after African food crop.

Empowering women and youth are not only for today’s benefits for investing in our future and economic growth. “These goals are well in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2,3,4 & 5, 8 respectively, Onigbanjo said.

She further added that personal experiences are a great form of inspiration for women to embrace entrepreneurship as an opportunity, highlighting how her son’s picky eating habits inspired her to start AugustSecrets, manufacturing Jadens Natural Cereals named after him.