Following the enormous importance attached to the continuous expanding Nigerian market, the largest economy in Africa, Unilever Nigeria Plc said it is committed to more investments in the country.
The management of the company which spent over $150 million (about N22.5 billion) in the last two years to modernise plants and build capacity said its planned significant investment will be in tandem with growth plans of the company for Nigeria.
Yaw Nsakorh, the CEO of Unilever Nigeria, who laid down the growth plans of his company when he led his management team on a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, last week, was not immediately drawn to numbers on the actual investment amount but said it is quite significant.
“We intend to continue with significant investment plans because the growth plans and ambition Unilever Nigeria has by far exceeds the growth ambition of others in any country”. The company is interested in building new distribution centers and sustaining the growth of the business into the future, Nsakorh said.
The investment largely will concentrate on expansion and modernising technologies and as Nsakorh said, about 80 percent of the investment will go into Unilever Ogun State plans.
Recognising Nigeria’s economic importance and the crucial role the country plays in advancing the African continent’s growth potentials, the CEO said, “Nigeria is in a very special place in the global Unilever construct. Not many countries in the world are called out as a global priority in the Unilever landscape. Nigeria is one of such countries that has been called out as a global priority right on the same platform as India, China and Brazil”.
According to him, “The growth plans of Unilever into the future will be in some way defective if it does not recognise Nigeria’s market importance going into the future for reasons of demographic, entrepreneurial nature of Nigerians. The place of Nigeria in the geo-politics of the future would be an extremely dominant one”.
He said it is, therefore, the people and organisations who understand what is going to happen in terms of the dynamics of the future that will plant the seed now.
On the heels of the World Economic Forum, Nsakorh said Unilever will be holding investment forum early July where global suppliers will be brought to Nigeria with the objective to create a partnership for the growth plans of Unilever.
He said this is a major breakthrough. “Prior to this, the meeting was held in South Africa and Singapore. It is not a forum that is done in every country and we fully understand that together as an ecosystem, government, business and NGOs have to intervene to ensure that the value chain in Nigeria is much more competitive”.
Nsakorh, who recognised Ogun State government’s focus at improving infrastructure, used the opportunity of the visit to appeal to the governor to assist the company in the areas of security and infrastructure, especially roads to ease business and distribution network.
Daniel Obi
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