Talking to the Chief
Executive Officer of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, you will
feel the pains of a man that has high hopes
for the country’s manufacturing sector, but feels dejected by the
activities of those holding the economy down. His tomato paste
plant in Lagos, one of the biggest in Africa, provides jobs for many
Nigerians and he believes he can create more jobs if
the system is clean. Today, the industry is plagued by importation of
substandard but cheap tomato paste from China, so, Umeofia is left
to fight to keep his local plant afloat and has become a
strong advocate for the manufacture of goods locally as against
importation. In this interview, Umeofia shares his pains and hopes for the
manufacturing sector.
On the manufacturing sector
The sector is not doing well for now because of the bad
foundation laid by previous governments.
There is no pretence about it, the manufacturing sector
anywhere in the world is given due attention.
Manufacturers are respected anywhere in the world ,except
Nigeria because we have not realized the importance of the real sector to grow
the economy.
The English people know why they call it the
real sector. In some clime, manufacturers have estates where they
are provided everything from roads to water, they can even
buy cars on loan. There is no sector of the economy that creates
employment more than the manufacturing sector anywhere in the world. Before the
advent of this government, some of us manufacturers felt we made the greatest
mistakes of our lives by being investors. If not for President Buhari, I would
have shut down this business by now or take it elsewhere.
Eric Umeofia
The previous governments, particularly that of Jonathan,
allowed importation, to the detriment of manufacturers. They were interested in
making more money than paying attention to quality by allowing substandard
goods to come into the country.
For example, a tomato paste should at least
have 40% real tomato; other ingredients are water and salt. So it means that in
each tank you are mixing , you need to use six to eight drums of tomato; it
depends on the quantity you are producing. That will make it to be
concentrated, but in some countries, they use a drum of tomato and
add starch , colour to make it look like real tomatoes.That colour they are
adding is dangerous to our health as it blocks blood vessels. We found
out the Chinese tricks, we reported to NAFDAC, but NAFDAC has not
done anything about it.
If not that CBN came to help us with the foreign exchange
policy that triggered our sales, we would have gone under. Now, these people
have found means of smuggling these products across our borders. So as
manufacturers in this country, even criminals on the street are more
respected than us. Sometimes I ask myself why am I wasting my time
manufacturing as those who went into trading are richer than me all
because I chose to help my country. It should not be so. Nigeria is not a
manufacturing nation.
Foreigners come here saying they want to invest, but all
they are interested in is to exploit the system. If you know the damages they
are doing to our economy, you will not believe it. If we have good economic
policies, no Nigeria will be out of work as there will be enough for all in the
next four years except you are lazy. A situation where a foreigner comes to
invest N100 million, after 2-3 years takes out N1 billion out of the economy is
unacceptable. That person is wounding the economy the more. There is no country
that its economy is driven by foreigners.
But in our country, government policies favour
foreigners, whatever they say is law. And in their countries, that
is not possible. They will jail you, but here because of
corruption, they are free. The foreigners bleed our economy, criminalize our
people, introduce corruption to government agencies, yet nobody is
imprisoned. In their countries, Nigerians are imprisoned for flimsy excuses.
Government needs to do something urgently on our
immigration policy to stop these people.
Britain just did that. The Nigerian government should ensure
that any foreigner that comes here has a good reason to be
here. I have businesses in Angola and UAE, all the nonsense they are doing
here, they cannot try it in Angola.
Last year, about 21 of them were sent packing from
Angola with their properties confiscated.
They are making our people slaves in their country. A time
will come when the people will revolt.
On the reason for still remaining in
manufacturing
The passion to grow my country’s economy is what is keeping
me going . I read a book on how five
people made America what it is today, so I said to myself if
people can achieve that in America, I want to be among those that will make
Nigeria great. In 1994, my company gave every state government one utility car when
we launched Erisco Bonpet ,that will show you the type of love I
have for my country. By the grace of God, we are very contented and
that contentment made me to come back home to establish companies despite the
successes we are making in Angola and UAE.
But, little did I know that it was a risky venture doing
business here in Nigeria. It is riskier than going to fight Boko-Haram in
Maiduguri to be an indigenous manufacturer here. Because your government
agencies work against you as they support foreigners to the detriment of their
people.
If I produce with six drums of
tomato and someone in China does so with one drum, how can we compete
with them?
I wrote a petition to the House of Reps on this and
they are working on it . We are creating jobs for their people, I will continue
to appeal to Nigerians to avoid foreign foods and other products for the economy
to grow. The government agencies did not listen to us, but now they
are seeing why we have been shouting.
My life and business are at risk because I am
saying what I am seeing. I know reports have been submitted to NAFDAC on the
activities of these people, but they will not do the right thing. Indian
government recently confiscated $50 million worth of goods belonging to a
multi-national and other charges filed in court against it.
For infractions. Here, in Nigeria who will do it?
NAFDAC boss will not do it, because he says all is well, but
we know it is not.
How do you relate this to some
of our governors going abroad to look for investors?
About three years ago in Ogun State, I bought land wanting
to expand my factory, I paid everything payable to government after buying land
from some people, just to get C of O, but two and a half years after, no
C of O. I wrote petitions and yet they say they want investors. How can
investors come when you can’t issue ordinary C of O? What is good
about industrialization in this country? There is frustration left
and right . If not that I have courage, I would have been frustrated out of
this country.
On
policies that can assist manufacturers
The CBN governor is doing well now. I have come to realise
that not that they don’t know what is good, it is because the person at the
helm of affairs was not interested then. By the action of the CBN
governor now, you will realize that he was interested in performing
but didn’t get the support and so he is performing now. I can tell
you now that they are listening to advise and by the time they follow the
advice step by step, you will see how the government will be praised by those
making noise. I want to draw your attention to this again, before now they will
create an intervention fund but after six weeks, the whole fund is in
India or Lebanon as these people manipulate documents to take the money out of
the system. They frustrate Nigerians.
On access to bank facilities
Our commercial banks are opportunistic, they don’t
have conscience. They will tell you their board wants them to make profits, but
must they kill to make profit?They steal people’s money through agreement, but
when you discover they will tell you it was a mistake. It will take them over
90 days to correct the mistake, but if you owe them a dime, they will put all
kind of pressure on you to recover their money. The commercial banks are
killing the economy because of their selfish interest, none of them is
interested in supporting industries. I wanted to build a tomato
concentrate plant in Kano in 2009, but a big bank in this country advised
me to import instead of investing in the country. They are not interested in
committing to development all they are after is buying and selling.
On his company’s backward
integration plan
We have 460 hectares of tomato plantation in Jigawa, we are
about having same hectares in
Sokoto now. In this business it has been
our target to have tomato grown everywhere, though the money is not there. When
you want to do backward integration of tomato in this country, you need a
minimum of
one line to process tomato into concentrate; and it costs
$30 to $50 million to do one line. In China, 95 per cent of the factories are
owned by government. The same machine that will work 60-90 days a year, will
work just 35 days in China. So, getting the money isn’t
easy. We grow tomato twice a year here in Nigeria. In China, they grow just
once a year, the same China that produce once in a year we are importing from
them. That shows we don’t know what we are doing. This is why I made up my mind
to produce tomato here. When we started producing tomato in can
here they said it was not possible, but today we are doing it. Some people are
still deceiving Nigerians that it is still not possible all in a bid to
continue importing .So with our backward integration on course, I pray God
gives us the power to produce everything about tomato here from planting to
packing very soon. We are going into tractor project now as you cannot do
agriculture without tractorization.
This is my area, agriculture spare and machinery. So, I am
doing everything possible for Nigeria to be rich in agriculture machineries as
this is where the world is going now.
There is none in the country that is functioning
now, we are the only one, so we plan with our backward integration to
support export from this country.
I want to impact my society and this informed my building
churches and mosques, I don’t want people to use religion to deceive the people
all in the name of tithe. I am a Christian, but I don’t support this idea
of tithe. I give what I have to people who need them. I will rather pay
my staff well than give tithe to pastor and and also those that
come my way.
On his company’s market
share in the tomato business
If the CBN gives us N100 billion loan and the
market is not here, I will not be able to pay back, even without interest
. We have a plant for about 450,000 metric tons of tomato paste in a
year. As a matter of fact, myself and Dantata can meet the demand
needs of Nigeria and export more, but there is no market. Now in the factory,
we manage to operate one line. Everywhere is filled up with products, so I have
the capacity to produce, but the substandard products from China have
taken over the market. Smuggled products have taken a large chunk of our
market share .But, I have the confidence that with this new government things
will turn around. I tell Chinese when they come that if you want to
do business here bring the plants to Nigeria.
If you give me anything to import for N20 billion and make
profit of N18 billion, I will tell you no, let us produce here. That is
why I am going back to Sokoto in the first quarter of next year to start
production of 20-30, 000 tractors per year.
The government of Sokoto is willing to assist us and
we are also doing tomato there.
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