Adenike “Denike” Adekunle has never been known to sit back and wait for opportunity to knock. The Nigerian-born founder of the Lagos-based fortified foods initiative, Forti Foods, can trace her solutions-driven focus, natural talent for entrepreneurship and enterprising spirit way back to when she was a teenager at high school in Dublin, Ireland.
Her journey, as you will see, has been a blend of action and resourcefulness.
Forti Foods, which provides nutrient-rich ready-to-eat convenience meals, first and foremost to stave off food insecurity in Nigeria and uplift the vulnerable, has grown from Adekunle’s research and development (R& D) journey. This evolved from an interest in health and nutrition that unfolded during four years of biomedical studies in the UK and Ireland.
All of this bubbles in a merry mix (her energy and enthusiasm are contagious) with the idea that “the best way to bring people together is around food,” which in turn inspired three separate culinary business ventures in London. Creating authentic and what would be regarded as typical foods in Nigeria, were her focus for all three.
I spoke with Adekunle the day after her 31st birthday. Impressive, the volume of ups and downs and side-hustle adventures she has crammed into a relatively short space in time on her odyssey to date into fortified foods.
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” This pragmatic quote from Oprah came to mind when processing Adekunle’s story.
Fortified Foods Backstory
“London-based social entrepreneur,” is one of the descriptions that pops up when I Google this cosmopolitan young woman of Africa. “My parents wanted to give me the best head start by way of education they could,” she tells me when I ask her about the international journey that is now seeing her tackle food insecurity in Nigeria.
“My dad’s younger sister lives in Dublin, Ireland.” When Adekunle was eight years old, her parents sent her there for her schooling. “I was in Dublin from 2002 to 2014.” Initially at boarding school. Then living with her aunt, who became her guardian. Her parents visited often.
It was as a young teenager in high school that Adekunle got the first taste of her natural penchant for entrepreneurship. “I was super good at making scoobies (colorful little hand-knotted items often used as bracelets).” So she started a small informal business selling them.
In retrospect, she says, her parents’ decision to send her abroad for her education sparked what must have been a wellspring of independence waiting to burst forth.
Post-high school she spent two years “at Uni in Ireland doing biomed — back then I planned to study medicine.”
After two years, she and a friend decided to move to the UK. There, at a college in Greenwich, she did another two years of biomedical studies. “I couldn’t get a loan to complete my degree and left before my finals.” She and her friend were already, by then, involved in a side gig with a culinary focus.
Foods in Nigeria
Adekunle’s LinkedIn profile overviews her corporate journey in London, during which time she specialized in financial crime and regulatory and risk compliance, skills and expertise she continued to hone. But she lost her corporate job in June 2020 when left, right and center, COVID was knocking down everything that did and did not move.
Meanwhile, she and a friend had started the meal prep side gig geared toward young Nigerian professionals in London craving what would be typical foods in Nigeria. She had come across a company in London making pre-packaged jollof rice. She knew hers was better. More authentic and flavorful.
By Wanda Hennig
