Erisco Foods, one of Nigeria’s promising local food company has threatened to shut down its production plant, lay off its 1500 employees and look for solace in another country if the Central Bank of Nigeria continues to deny it access foreign exchange. The company’s Chief Executive, Mr. Eric Umeofia, disclosed this Wednesday  in Lagos when some of the company’s workers held a protest to bemoan their impending faith of a possible lay off.

He noted that the high interest rates charged by commercial banks, importation as well as policy constraints were disincentives to production in the country.

“It is difficult for indigenous manufacturers to access forex despite CBN’s promise to manufacturers that they will allocate 60 per cent of foreign exchange to them.

“It is unbelievable that for over two months, no forex has been allocated to Erisco Foods whereas the same forex is allocated daily for the importation of finished goods”.

According to him: “Products that can be easily produced locally like fish head, tomato paste, razor blade are on the forex bids of the various banks.

“The prices of our products are high due to high cost of production and this is in addition that we currently generate our own power.

“We have lost over N3.5bn in our bid to industrialise Nigerian economy and (are) ready to move our production section to another country.”

Umeofia complained that the penchant of Nigerians for imported goods and lack of clear policy against importation of goods that could be manufactured locally were destroying  local manufacturers.

He continued: “We have stock of tomato paste worth over N6bn now and not selling due to dumping and conspiracy against indigenous manufacturers.

“We have complained publicly and officially to all the relevant government agencies with loads of evidence, but regrettably nothing has changed till date.

“We will be forced against our patriotic wish to relocate our operations to a country where there is conducive and favourable environment for manufacturing if within 30 days from now nothing significant is done by the government to address these issues.

“We will lay off 1,500 of our employees in the factory, replicate our $150m investment in another country and from there import tomato paste to Nigeria.”

Erisco Foods has a production capacity of 450,000 metric tons of tomato paste annually for 22 brands with over 2,000 workers.

The company’s workers had in their hundreds held a peaceful protest against the management’s plan to shut its production worth about $150m.

The workers bore placards and chanted songs around the factory premises in Oregun, Lagos.

The Area Sales Manager, Erisco Foods, Mr. Ayoola Oladayo, urged the Federal Government to save their jobs by intervening in the situation of the company.

He said, “We appeal to the government to save our jobs and families.

“The unemployment rate is alarming and we do not want to be classified as jobless in this harsh economic situation of the country.

“About 2,000 of us will be affected in various factories if the company shuts down.

“We urge the government to assist Erisco Foods and other indigenous manufacturers to continue to contribute to the country’s GDP.”