Infant nutrition was key field of imperial health policies in Africa from the inter-war period to the end of colonisation. Although this phenomenon has been documented on the scale of some African countries, this article argues that infant nutrition stood as a particularly crucial field of trans-imperial exchanges on the scale of the African continent. It further demonstrates that trans-imperial rivalries and collaborations in Africa created a propitious political, institutional, and scientific context for business participation in infant nutrition. The article illustrates these phenomena by examining colonial, trans-imperial, international, and public-private nutrition initiatives in Africa, focusing especially on the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa (CTCA) and the food company Nestlé.