Erisco company has joined the league of companies leaving the shores of Nigeria as a result inadequate economic conditions.
The Chief Executive Office, Erisco Foods, Eric Umeofia
Africa’s top tomato paste maker, Chief Eric Umeofia, has set
machinery in motion to set up manufacturing concerns in four additional
African countries—Kenya, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.
The venture into four other African countries is a fallout from Umeofia’s decision to close shop in Nigeria.
Umeofia, who confirmed the development to correspondents in Lagos
on Sunday, said that his goal was also to have dominant tomato paste
manufacturing presence in at least 20 African countries in the near
future.
He said that ease of doing business was his attraction in opening
shops in the African countries, following his plans to move out of
Nigeria because of “the harsh realities of doing business in the country”.
Umeofia had recently announced that he was relocating his key
manufacturing plant to China, following what he described as policy
inconsistencies now crippling his Nigeria operations.
He said undue favouritism to Lebanese, Indian and Chinese
businessmen in the allocation of foreign exchange to import tomato
pastes and other items, including frozen fish, has dealt serious blow to
his company, Erisco Foods Ltd. and also to other Nigerian companies
involved in manufacturing.
Erisco Foods, which has had dominant presence in Liberia and Angola
over the years, is listed as Africa’s top tomato paste manufacturer,
and the company is the fourth largest of its type in the world,
according to records.
But policy inconsistencies and alleged connivance of officials of
some key government agencies to deny foreign exchange allocation to
indigenous companies in preference for foreigners have left many
Nigerian companies struggling or closing shops in recent times.
On October 5, Umeofia announced plans to shut down operations and
sack some 1,500 workers at his expansive factory in Oregun, an
industrial area of Lagos.
The industrialist said that he decided to relocate to China to
produce at cheaper cost and then, sell the goods in Nigeria and other
African markets, stressing that he would even make more profit doing so.
He said, “This appears to be the only reasonable thing for me
to do since my cries appear to have no meaning for those stifling our
operations.”
Umeofia said that he brought his manufacturing concerns worth about
$150m in Dubai and Angola to Nigeria in 2009 in what he described as
his patriotic zeal to contribute to the growth of Nigeria.
He said, “But dumping of sub-standard tomato pastes from mainly
Asian nations has resulted to Erisco Foods losing up to N3.5bn in
recent years.
“More so, our products worth about N6bn remain unsold, due to
the flooding of our markets with sub-standard tomato pastes from foreign
countries.
“If we don’t leave Nigeria now we’ll go bankrupt and I believe
that my leaving will open up the environment for government to
understand the dilemma facing Nigerian manufacturers like me.”
The Anambra State born industrialist restated that Erisco Foods
would also no longer go ahead with its plan to set up a plant to
manufacture tractors and other agricultural accessories in northern
Nigeria, due to foreign exchange challenges to purchase machinery.
He said, “We had to return the certificate of occupancy for
some 2,400 hectares of land, graciously given to us by the Katsina State
Government for our tractor manufacturing factory because we’re not able
to source Forex to push the venture.”
Umeofia pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to use his good
offices to look into the activities of top officials of some government
agencies conniving with foreigners to short-change Nigeria.
He said, “Some government agencies are impeding and frustrating
us in our bid to create jobs for Nigerians. The agencies prefer to
favour dubious Chinese, Indian and Lebanese businessmen, making them to
create jobs in their countries and depleting Nigeria of jobs.
“Favouring foreigners doing business in Nigeria is
counter-productive because no foreigner can love Nigeria better than
Nigerians.”
Erisco Foods has a plant capable of producing 450,000 metric tonnes
of tomato paste and ketchup annually but the company is producing at
below 20 per cent of its installed capacity, due to sundry challenges.
NAN
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