Over 1500 employees of Erisco Foods limited are about losing their jobs as the company has begun the process of winding up its tomatoes paste factory in the country sequel to relocating to China. The Company’s President, Chief Eric Umeofia, who announced the plan Tuesday in Lagos, said they are being forced to take the decision due to the refusal of the Central Bank to allocate FOREX to them for importation of raw materials as well as collaboration between some government agencies and importers from Asia to flood the market with substandard paste.

The Company’s President, Chief Eric Umeofia, who announced the plan Tuesday in Lagos, said they are being forced to take the decision due to the refusal of the Central Bank to allocate FOREX to them for importation of raw materials as well as collaboration between some government agencies and importers from Asia to flood the market with substandard paste.

“It is saddening and painful that we have started the process of relocating our factory out of the country, thereby forcing us against our wish to create jobs in foreign lands due to the evil and wicked desires of unpatriotic Nigerians who frustrate every effort we have made to create jobs in the country and earn foreign exchange.”

It will be recall that the Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, in February this year inaugurated the company’s N4 billion tomato paste processing plant that can process 450,000 tonnes of tomatoes in Oregun, Lagos State. According to Umeofia, the idea of the new plant was borne out of the need to resolve the glut in the tomato products from farmers, particularly in the northern part of the country, who are losing about 75 per cent of their produce due to the absence of storage or processing facilities.

While disclosing that it will be taking the company about six months to complete move its factories out of Nigeria, Chief Umeofia said “CBN refused to give us approval till date to use our own deposit of USD460, 000.00 generated from our foreign operations, but the same CBN approves Nigeria’s scarce FOREX to other companies to continue to import sub standards products into the country.”

He added “CBN refused to give us FOREX to import machineries, machine spare parts and raw materials to be used for processing of Nigeria fresh tomatoes into tomato paste in our Lagos factory. In addition, CBN refused to give us enough intervention funds after several promises to import agricultural tractors, improved tomato seedlings, fertilizer, and chemicals for our Katsina Project. Umeofia said it is regrettable that the same CBN approved intervention loan and FOREX to companies mostly owned by foreigners to import finished tomato paste at cheaper rate and other items like frozen fish and other items that can be produced in Nigeria.

“Recently, USD 15.1 million was allocated to an Indian company among others in one bidding at the exchange rate of N280.00 to a dollar and the CBN claimed it was for future contract, while, Erisco Foods is running its big company with FOREX sourced from parallel markets at the exchange rate of over N450.00 to a dollar.” Chief Umeofia said they expected the government to place a ban on the importation of tomatoes paste into the country as they did in banning importation of cement and fruit juice, but regretted that that was not done. He added that the company with over 2, 000 workers has the capacity to meet all the tomato needs of Nigeria and even export if they produce at full capacity. “But since inception, we have been producing fewer than 20% because of dumping of substandard products by Indians, Chinese and some unpatriotic Nigerians.”

The Erisco Foods’ boss noted that the tactical supports given by some government agencies to importers of sub standards tomatoes paste into the country is forcing them to close their factories and join the importers to flood the market with finished goods as they have lost over N3.6 Billion due to dumping of finished products in the past. “We have over N6billion of finished products not sold due to the activities of nefarious activities of importers and over N13 billion of raw materials in our warehouses. Also, our foreign supplier bills for collection line worth over US$20m were cancelled due to CBN frustration.”

The travails of the the Nigerian economy as taken on a sad note as the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Wednesday, October 26 issued a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government, to prevent international oil companies operating in the country from sacking oil workers. Mr Igwe Achese, the national president of NUPENG, gave the ultimatum at the end of a meeting of the central working committee of NUPENG, which held in Effurun, Uvwie local government area of Delta state.

Speaking at the meeting, Achese said many oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Pan Ocean and Ground Petroleum, were leaving the country due to the recession, which has led to the sacking of about 3,000 oil workers.

The national president said that if the federal government fails to stop the ongoing mass sack in the oil sector, many more would lose their jobs.

Achese said: “It is painful to say as I address you, Chevron has wound up in the East and their offices closed. A total of 1,500 workers were sacked without their entitlements and nobody is saying anything. As we speak, many companies have left and many others are winding up to go.

“Many oil companies are winding up, including ExxonMobil, Pan Ocean, Sapiem Ground Petroleum, and Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited. About 3,000 workers have already been sacked by the various oil companies.

“The Federal Government should act fast to avert further loss of jobs. There is too much redundancy in the oil industry, which needs urgent action from government to salvage the situation.”