10 companies shut down business in Nigeria’s food, beverages industry in five years

Between 2015 and now, 10 companies in the food, beverage and tobacco industry have shut their operations and businesses in Nigeria due to the harsh working environment particularly government policies, stifling the nation’s economy and the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President, Food Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB), Comrade Quadri Olaleye, who decried the negative effects of government policies and COVID-19 in the sector, also said the sector had suffered from mass sack of workers and several factory closures, within the last five years.

Olaleye was speaking at the 14th National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) of the Food Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) held in Abuja at the weekend.

To this end, Olaleye, who is also the President of Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria, said FOBTOB, has since deleted the names of the 10 companies from its book of operation.

“During the same period, the following company was shut down and they were equally expunged from our books,” Olaleye said.

The companies affected were: Bendel Brewery Limited; Danico West Africa Limited; International Breweries Limited; Pal Breweries Plc; Port Harcourt Flour Mills Limited; Scoa Foods Limited; Standard Biscuit & Agro Products, Jos; UTC Foods Plc; Vitamalt Plc; Ranona Limited; and Deli Foods Limited.

He said, “it is our hope that the government would wake up from the snail speed approach to governance since governance is a serious business for serious-minded people. The government must urgently start addressing the issue of the growing unemployment rate, insecurity, and the general infrastructural decay in our nation.”

Besides, he pointed out that 24 other companies in the sector carried out mass sack of workers within the period, adding, “between the last Delegates’ Conference in 2015 and now, our industrial sector has witnessed redundancies in the following companies that have members affiliated to our association.”

Among the 24 companies listed are: Nigeria Distilleries Limited; Nestle Nigeria Plc; Cadbury Nigeria Plc; Flour Mills of Nigeria Limited; Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited; Sosaco Nigeria Limited; Dangote Flour Mills Limited; Ragolis Waters Ltd; Guinness Nigeria Plc; International Breweries Plc; Nigerian Breweries Plc; Fan Milk Nigeria Plc; and CWAY Food and Beverage Limited, among others.

According to Olaleye, it is unfortunate that despite the vantage position of the industry to the economical sustenance, it has not received 10 per cent of the attention giving to other sectors of the economy.

He said: “The production cost has gone up but nothing was done in terms of financial support and tax relief by the government to cushion the effects of this, rather, we are subjected to different bans ranging from accessibility of forex to import raw materials to forced backward integration. We are not opposed to backward integration in any form but its implementation was ill-time as it has led to massive redundancy in our industry.

The FOBTOB president added: “I, on behalf of the teeming members of this association, using this medium to draw the attention of the government to the food sector in particular, and we request that the government meets with our Employers’ Association for engagement on how to move the food sector forward and a means of finding the lasting solution to the problematic issue of de-industrialization of the country.”

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