Brands/Products
German Firm Partners Freddy Hirsch Nigeria to Boost Food Innovation
By Sodeinde Temidayo David
In a bid to boost food innovation across West Africa, a German-based nutrition supplier, Symrise AG, has partnered with Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, a manufacturer of ingredients.
According to the statement issued today by Symrise AG, the partnership will focus on the development, launch and commercialization of transformational food products, which includes general seasoning, bouillon meat, snacks, and instant noodles.
Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, a leading West African manufacturer of ingredients and flavours, boasts world-class Research, Development, and Application laboratories and manufacturing facilities.
On the other hand, Symrise AG is a global multi-billion-dollar fragrance, care, flavour, and nutrition supplier present in over 100 countries.
According to the Sub Regional Director, Flavour Africa Middle East, Symrise AG, Mr Sofiane Berrahmoune, the company is set to deliver its products and services at a greater speed to market in Africa, and for this reason, has partnered with Freddy Hirsch Nigeria.
Symrise AG spokesperson further stated that the partnership will give the company deeper access to valuable insights about Africa’s food industry.
This follows as increasing urbanization, rising incomes, a growing regional population, and evolving lifestyle changes are driving the African food flavour and enhancer ingredient market and increasing the consumption of processed foods and beverages.
The global flavour and fragrance market is projected to reach $36 billion in 2022 with Africa expected to play one of the biggest growth opportunities.
Also, according to a forecast for the period of 2020 to 2025, the Africa food flavour and enhancer market is foretold to witness a compound annual growth rate CAGR of 5.12 per cent as the continent proved to be a growing market.
Mr Berrahmoune concluded his statement by saying “together, we are stronger than ever, committed to co-create with Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, combining the best of our strengths and leveraging our strong global footprint with our winning local flexibility, market, and consumer understanding.”
Also speaking on the partnership, the Managing Director of Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, Mr Kojo Brifo, expressed that his company is set to achieve its vision of creating authentic African flavours and tastes.
He noted that Freddy Hirsch has invested in a Research, Development, and Application laboratory and a manufacturing facility with world-class quality management systems, in West Africa.
Mr Brifo added that partnership with Symrise AG will provide an acceleration of flavour development across West Africa and will increase the creativity of customized flavours, help our customers attain speed to market, and enhance their operational agility.
Together, Symrise AG and Freddy Hirsch Nigeria are set to position themselves as the leading contributors to the evolution of the food and beverage industry in West Africa and the Middle East.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An institutional investor, First Ally Capital, has strengthened a leading Nigerian financial technology company, Mathesis Analytics, to scale its proprietary credit decisioning infrastructure.
It made this possible by injecting fresh capital into the firm, which specialises in AI-powered credit decisioning infrastructure, an action that will directly support the growth and scaling of Mathesis’ core mission of providing the intelligence and infrastructure needed to bridge the credit gap for millions of unscored or underscored individuals across Nigeria.
With this investment, Mathesis will enable financial institutions to confidently assess and extend credit to borrowers who lack a formal credit history by leveraging an expanded pool of alternative behavioural and transactional data.
To date, Mathesis’ systems have supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, and the company is actively deploying its infrastructure to establish a growing pan-African footprint.
With the investment from First Ally Capital, Mathesis is well positioned to transform how the credit ecosystem operates, driving financial inclusion in partnership with lenders across the continent.
A significant barrier to credit access in Nigeria, which prides itself on being Africa’s largest economy, is data fragmentation. Borrowers frequently build positive financial behaviours across multiple digital platforms by repaying microfinance loans, saving through fintech wallets, or servicing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) facilities.
However, under traditional credit infrastructure, these achievements remain invisible to new lenders.
Mathesis addresses this challenge through the concept of Personal Equity—the quantified expression of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across every institution with which they have transacted.
By translating these disparate signals into a precise, portable measure of creditworthiness, Mathesis creates a comprehensive credit identity that reflects the full breadth of a person’s financial life.
“True financial inclusion cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires structural collaboration in which lenders and fintech companies work as partners within the ecosystem.
“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure. By quantifying Personal Equity, we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” the chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Winston Osuchukwu, stated.
On his part, the chief executive of First Ally Capital, Mr Ebenezer Olufowose, said, “At First Ally Capital, we pride ourselves on being a one-stop destination for financial solutions, offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging from investment banking and asset management to trusteeship, inclusive banking, and real estate.
“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The chief executive of Canal+ Africa, Mr David Mignot, has disclosed that MultiChoice is now fully integrated into the media group.
Mr Mignot disclosed this via a statement issued on Thursday, noting that this development marks a new phase in the evolution of one of Africa’s leading pay television operators.
He noted that the integration positions MultiChoice within a global media organisation with an extensive international footprint.
“MultiChoice is now a full subsidiary of a truly international media group operating in 70 countries. The group was founded in France, is listed in London and Johannesburg, and has a strong African presence with operations in more than 45 countries,” Mr Mignot said.
The statement underscores the scale of the combined business, highlighting Canal+’s global reach alongside its significant investments across Africa.
The completion of the transaction is expected to strengthen MultiChoice’s position in the African media and entertainment market by giving it access to the broader resources, expertise and international capabilities of the Canal+ Group, while reinforcing the group’s commitment to the continent.
MultiChoice operates across sub-Saharan Africa through platforms including DStv and GOtv, serving millions of subscribers with entertainment, sports and news content.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FoodCourt, a Nigerian cloud kitchen startup backed by Y Combinator, has suspended operations after months of unpaid salaries and mounting debts to vendors triggered a staff strike and forced the company to halt customer orders, according to a report by TechCabal.
The publication reported that customers first noticed on March 4 that they could no longer place orders through the FoodCourt app after the company disabled ordering as kitchen workers, delivery personnel and branch staff embarked on strike over unpaid wages. The company also owed outstanding payments to vendors.
By April 19, FoodCourt had temporarily shut its last operating branch after suspending activities across its Lagos and Abuja locations while seeking fresh funding and restructuring the business, according to the report.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Henry Nneji, said the decision to pause operations was not caused by a single issue but by a combination of operational, organisational and working-capital challenges.
“It’s important to clarify that the decision to pause operations wasn’t driven by one single issue. We reached a point where it became clear that continuing to patch those issues while operating wasn’t the right long-term decision,” he said.
“The objective is to build a stronger business than the one that existed before the suspension. We fully intend to bring FoodCourt back,” he added in an emailed response.
The company acknowledged outstanding obligations to employees, vendors, riders and service providers, but declined to disclose the number of affected workers or the total amount owed. It said efforts were underway to resolve the liabilities as part of its restructuring process.
It was also reported that the startup’s financial difficulties worsened after expansion into additional locations increased operating costs, while its cloud kitchen model came under pressure from rising labour, logistics, food and marketing expenses.
Despite the shutdown, Mr Nneji said FoodCourt intends to relaunch after completing its restructuring, adding that the company believes demand for its products remains strong.
Founded in 2021 by Henry Nneji and Paul Adokiye Iruene, FoodCourt operates cloud kitchens under multiple virtual restaurant brands through its consumer app. According to TechCabal, the startup had previously disclosed raising $1.7 million, delivering more than one million meals and reaching $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
