Ending micronutrient malnutrition through small-scale fortification

3 Nov

MLC VANGUARD | Created by Project Healthy Children - Sanku Fortification

Sanku’s mission is to end micronutrient malnutrition in Africa by improving access to nutrient fortified maize flour. Sanku’s fortification solution works with the small mills that feed most Tanzanians, including impoverished and rural populations. In just 3 years, Sanku has rapidly scaled and is reaching 2M people daily and is on track to reach 100M people daily across 10 countries in Africa by 2025 with potential for global replication.

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1,181,062 Lives Impacted

Sanku has transformed food fortification, making micronutrients available to the population by working through small-scale millers. Sanku equips these millers with the technology and tools to fortify flour with critical micronutrients at no additional cost. This means that millers are able to sell fortified flour for the same price as unfortified flour, ensuring that there is no financial burden placed on the consumer.

The Innovation

Large-scale fortification has limited reach in developing countries and therefore does not benefit low income or remote populations. Before Sanku, small millers could neither afford the additional cost of the nutrient premix nor could they pass the cost onto the customer. While biofortification has the same outcomes as fortification in principle, it is as much as seven times more expensive, with a much longer-lead time, relying on government support and behavior change. Supplementation similarly relies on government support and adherence that is difficult to guarantee in low-income, remote settings. Sanku designed a proven business model that neutralizes the cost and simultaneously incentivizes millers to fortify their flour.

Sanku invented an IoT-enabled, automatic dosing machine called the “dosifier” that sits on top of any size mill hopper and adds life-saving nutrients into flour as it is milled. Our award-winning machine does not change the milling process and requires virtually no training to use. Through our business model, we have neutralized the cost of fortification for millers and consumers, while bringing in revenue to substantially offset our costs. We purchase maize flour bags in bulk and sell them back to millers at market rate, while bundling in the micronutrient premix required to fortify flour that will be packed into those bags.

About Sanku - Project Healthy Children

Sanku - Project Healthy Children's mission is to provide children everywhere with the simple, inexpensive, basic nutritional support they require to survive and thrive. Sanku - PHC focuses on achieving wide micronutrient coverage for at-risk communities in Africa and beyond.