…Urges FG to compel Customs, NAFDAC, SON on enforcement against tomato paste importation
By Idris Bakare
The founder and chief executive officer of the Erisco Foods Processing Limited, Chief Eric Odinaka Umeofia has averred that despite the good intentions of President Muhammadu Buhari in supporting local manufacturers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are frustrating the activities of manufacturers in the country.
The business magnate who said unequivocally that he has remained in business for passion’s sake, added that “Nigerians must be encouraged to produce what we eat and what we produce if the economy must grow.”
Umeofia stated this during Erisco product unveiling and distributors reward event held in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said his desire and aspiration is to become a good general providing food to defend the territorial integrity of the country, stating that “his love for his father land can’t be traded.”
Speaking on the operational challenges faced by the company, Managing Director, Erisco Foods Ltd, Mr. Nnamdi Umeofia, explained that indigenous manufacturing organisations such as Erisco Food Plc lacks support from most MDAs which prefer foreign products than local manufacturing products.
He stressed that due to frustrations by MDAs the company has not been able to utilise up to 15 percent of the plant’s installed capacity per annum.
He said that the company has been operating at a loss for over six months due to the high inflation rate at which imported banned tomato paste in retail packs have flooded the market for over three years in the country.
He disclosed that Erisco Foods Limited has not received any intervention loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for nearly three years, stating that foreign exchange needed in procurement of equipment for expansion are being sourced from parallel market at a very high rate.
In his words, “Despite the fact that we are the only indigenous tomato paste manufacturer that is projecting Nigeria’s image globally through our multiple adverts in local and international media including CNN, yet MDAs appear to be bent on crippling us by denying us the necessary support needed to expand our operations, with a view to creating more jobs for our teeming and ready to work unemployed youths.
“Government needs to compel some of these MDAs like Customs, NAFDAC and SON to fully enforce the ban on the important of tomato paste in retail packs, while CBN should be compelled to support indigenous manufacturers, more than they do now, or at least, the same way they support foreigners and importers of food products in the country.
“We strongly believe that if the ban on tomato paste in retail packs is fully implemented and enforced, Erisco Foods Limited would have utilised its 450,000MT Per annum installed capacity, to produce what we eat as well as for export to earn big foreign exchange.
“The long term and sustainable solution to the myriad of challenges facing the Nigerian economy is for us to fully support and patronise our local product especially in areas where we have comparative advantage, like tomato paste,” he noted.