Amayi Foods: Three women, one vision, a continent transformed

Once upon a time in West Africa, the aroma of home-cooked stews and hand-pounded spices rose from village kitchens to city streets, recipes whispered down generations, flavours bold enough to bind families and communities together. But the same kitchens that nourished millions were often starved of one thing: resilience.

Nigeria, blessed with fertile soil and a culinary heritage envied across Africa, has for decades imported far too much of what it should be producing at scale: processed spices, shelf-ready condiments, and flavour-rich mixes. For every tonne of tomatoes harvested, too many rots on the roadside before they become anything more. For every pepper grown under the fierce sun, middlemen pocket more than the farmers who sweat for the harvest. And for every meal cooked in bustling cities or quiet villages, millions of naira leak away, traded for foreign brands stocked on local shelves.

Yet amidst this paradox – fertile land, rich crops, and empty processing factories – three women saw what others did not. They saw that what Nigeria needed wasn’t just another food company. It needed a revolution, bottled.

From Boardrooms to Backyards

Long before Amayi Foods existed, Kudzayi Hove, Nana Appiah-Korang, and Onome Allu sat around mahogany tables, negotiating private equity deals for some of Africa’s biggest investment firms. They spoke the language of capital, understood the heartbeat of emerging markets, and knew where value was created and where it was stolen.

But all three felt the same question humming under their professional success: Are we going to keep working for people to build the future, or will we build it ourselves?

In 2015, they answered that question. They swapped tailored suits for factory coats, boardroom slides for spice grinders, and turned a deep friendship into a business partnership that would challenge Nigeria’s entire fast-moving consumer goods industry.

The Taste That Started It All

For Onome, it all started in her mother’s warm, bustling kitchen. It was there she learned that food was more than survival, it was a love language, a connection between past and future. When she first blended the peppers for Rodo Peppe, it wasn’t just spicy, it was a bottled memory, a tribute to all the mothers whose cooking kept families strong.

For Nana, the spark was her mother’s Poi Poi, a secret family blend that had spiced up countless family gatherings. What if that same blend could sit on supermarket shelves from Lagos to London?

For Kudzayi, it was about the leap. A Zimbabwean who had made Nigeria her home, she gave up a lucrative career to bet on the simple, powerful idea that Africa’s food should be processed in Africa, by Africans, for the world.

A Business in a Time of Scarcity

Building a food business is hard anywhere. But in Nigeria, where electricity cuts, fluctuating exchange rates, and surging food inflation are everyday hurdles, it’s a trial by fire. By October 2024, food inflation hit nearly 40% year-on-year. The average Nigerian household was spending more than half its income just to eat.

And yet Amayi Foods is defying gravity, growing faster than the average fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, and tracking to become the largest women-owned food processor in Nigeria. It didn’t happen overnight. For nearly a decade, these three founders poured every ounce of skill, network, and sacrifice into the dream. They missed family gatherings, traded paycheques for risk, and learned to solve problems that no spreadsheet ever prepared them for.

But they had a secret ingredient: each other.

Sisterhood That Can’t Be Bought

Spend five minutes with these three women and you see it: a bond of deep respect and trust that no investor pitch can fully capture. In any conversation, they pause to credit each other’s sacrifices. When asked about milestones, they talk first about moments when one pushed the others forward.

Onome is the genius behind new recipes. Nana, the strategist who turns family secrets into household staples. Kudzayi, the captain steering growth and acquisition deals with the calm edge of a private equity veteran who knows how to unlock capital.

Disagreements? They have them. They’ve argued over packaging colours, recipe tweaks, and which product brings in the most revenue. For Onome, it’s the Toma-to Mix, the crowd favourite. For Kudzayi, it’s Toma Peppe, the taste of Jollof that brings a Zimbabwean closer to her adopted Nigerian home. For Nana, it’s the Poi Poi that launched it all.

But when the disagreements settle, the vision remains: to prove that three African women can not only work together, they can build together, scale together, and win together.

A Business That Grows More Than Profit

What truly sets Amayi Foods apart is its ecosystem thinking. It’s not enough to make sauces that delight taste buds; the company exists to break a cycle that has trapped African farmers for decades. Over 20 community projects tie Amayi Foods to thousands of smallholder farmers across Nigeria and West Africa.

With every jar sold, a farmer earns more, learns better techniques, and gains access to fairer markets. From post-harvest storage to climate-smart farming to cooperative models that give farmers bargaining power, Amayi is proving that the best supply chains don’t squeeze, they strengthen.

This is how a company that started with three friends and a borrowed kitchen is now finalising its first acquisition. That moment, when a contract manufacturer asked, “Do you want to buy my company?” was once laughable, until Kudzayi’s friend reminded her: “What exactly are you trying to achieve here?”

They remembered. And now they’re doing it, using their private equity backgrounds to pull together deals that will double capacity and scale impact overnight.

Backing That Means More

In 2024, Impact Ventures and MotherFood put money where their vision is, investing $75,000 through a SAFE that will train farmers, create jobs for low-income women, and fortify Amayi’s condiments to tackle hidden hunger. The partnership is more than capital; it’s a bet on a model that shows how investing in women multiplies prosperity.

Nutrition, especially for mothers and children, remains one of Nigeria’s most critical gaps. Amayi Foods is tackling this head-on, pioneering affordable, nutritious products that fuel families and strengthen communities. With new funding and a $5,000 marketing boost, they’re telling their story louder, so every household knows that choosing Amayi isn’t just delicious; it’s nation-building.

Made Here, Loved Everywhere

From Lagos markets to diaspora shops in London and Toronto, every jar of Rodo Peppe or Poi Poi carries more than flavour. It carries proof that Nigeria can feed itself and feed the world on its terms.

For decades, Nigeria’s economy has been defined by oil. But the future belongs to those who turn raw potential into finished products, who strengthen the naira by replacing imports with exports, who empower farmers to build wealth that endures.

The Revolution in a Jar

In the next five years, Amayi Foods plans to deepen its roots and widen its reach, finalising its acquisition, expanding capacity, and growing the supply chain that makes local prosperity real. For every jar sold, for every farmer trained, for every mother and child nourished, these three women are proving that prosperity isn’t imported. It’s grown, jarred, shared, and passed on.

This is how currencies strengthen, how communities rise, and how a continent transforms, one jar of Rodo Peppe at a time.

Amayi Foods. Homegrown. Women-led. Africa-ready.
The promise is in the jar, and it tastes like the future.