Minister Commends Unilever Nigeria for its Commitment to the Growth of Nigerian Economy

As part of its commitment to continually invest in Nigeria,Unilever West Africa’s Vice President, Supply Chain, Siddharth Ramaswamy, has reiterated the company’s commitment to the growth of the Nigerian economy through plans to increase its investment portfolio in the country thereby enhance local manufacturing.

Siddharth said this during the courtesy visit and factory tour of the Honorable Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. OgbonnayaOnuto the manufacturing giant.

According to Ramaswamy, the company which has been operating in Nigeria for almost 100 years, would continue to invest in the country, albeit the prevailing economic challenges. “Nigeria is strategic to our business operations. This is why we remain committed to the country’s socio-economic development. We currently operate two manufacturing hubs in Nigeria, and we are already taking actions to increase our local manufacturing capacity.

There are ongoing investments which will not only provide additional employment opportunities for Nigerians, but will deliver further economic value through the development of a sustainable supply chain structure consisting of local manufacturers”, he said.

In his response, the Honourable Minister, Dr.OgbonnayaOnu,commended Unilever for its long serving historyin Nigeria, and reaffirmedthe government’s commitment tosupport Unilever in itsoperation.

According to him, the government is working hard to movethe nation’s economy from a resource based to a knowledge based economy and the government is looking up  to partner with organisations such as Unilever to achieve this, through

 

synergy with several research institutions under the ministry of Science and Technology.  He said visits such as this, is to create an avenue to see how the government can assist organizations such as Unilever to overcome challenges by providing enabling environment to grow its business either through incentives or enabling legal framework. ‘We want companies to use more of local raw materials in production processes. Because when this happens, new jobs will be created, and our GDP will grow- thereby, reducing poverty. This can only happen if we work with you and other responsible companies”, he said.

Onu encouraged Unilevertoshow more interest in local research in order to improve its production process. He charged Unilever to work more closely with FIIRO and other research centersunder the Ministry of Science and Technology.