NCDMB boss points investors to opportunities in Nigeria’s fast food industry

The executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has urged Nigerian investors to tap into the fast food and confectionaries subsector projected to earn N300bn in 2021 alone.

Wabote also warned foreign companies, which he accused of blackmailing him so as to get their way through in the Train 7, saying he would never give in.

Wabote spoke in Bonny on Thursday at the unveiling of a Nigerian fast food company, The Promise, by top industry leaders and the leadership of the kingdom to target the expected 10,000 new workers that would work in the $10bn Train 7 project. The construction phase is expected to last about four years. The new Bonny outlet is said to cost N200 million.

Quoting figures from the Association of Fast Food and Confectioners of Nigeria (AFFCON), he said the quick-service restaurants (QSR) generated about N200bn revenue in 2018 and employed more than 500,000 workers.

“The size is currently estimated at N300billion with an annual growth rate of about 12 percent,” Wabote said.

“Data from Statista projects that revenue from online sales in the Nigerian Food & Beverages segment is projected to reach $187m in 2021 rising to about $289m by 2025. User penetration for online patrons will be 6.5 percent in 2021 and is expected to almost double to 11.8 percent by 2025,” he said.

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This, he said, shows the enormous potential of this segment of the economy for any discerning investor as the population in the cities continues to increase, “as we complete the modernization of our airports, as we commission new train stations, as we nourish our students in schools, and as we sanction new projects in the oil and gas industry such as the NLNG Train-7”.

Wabote commended the president/CEO of Integrated Catering Company Limited, Oluwatoyin Alabi, for his contribution to the growth of the Nigerian content by demonstrating that he and his team have the ability to provide high standard catering services in the oil and gas sector.

“You have taken the initiative to invest in a proactive manner which we always appreciate within NCDMB as it gives us the leverage to insist on patronage of local businesses as we perform our regulatory roles. Our interest in provision of support for in-country oil and gas service providers is not limited to fabrication, rigs, pipes and vessels but also to other linkage sectors such as catering services,” Wabote said.

“The growth of the company is a testament to your business and managerial acumen as it is a no mean feat to grow and sustain efficient operations across the several outlets of The Promise. There must be something unique about the taste of your food and especially the service you render to customers that makes them come back for repeat patronage,” he said.

He also commended the entire management and staff of Integrated Catering Company Limited for working over the years to build up a reliable brand in food business, The Promise, tasking them to do all within their power not to tarnish the brand and also be ready to always out-perform the competition.

Apart from the mechanical and construction aspects of Train 7, Wabote said there was huge opportunity and wealth to be made in logistics and other areas, urging Nigerians to consider the low-hanging fruits in this area.

“10,000 workers will need to move, sleep, eat, wear dresses, need schools for their children, need medical attention, etc,” he said.

Turning to foreign contractors, Wabote said it was sad that they built NLNG from trains one to six without leaving their presence in Bonny. He said if they did, Bonny would be a different city by now.

He said those fly-by-night companies who come to Bonny and leave without impacting the city have started again to deviate from laid-down Nigerian content rules.

“As we prepare to usher in the Train 7 project, there are lots of companies who have business in Bonny that do not have offices in Bonny. We have built NLNG Train 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and when you ask those companies of their office location, you’d discover that majority of them are not in Bonny. They prefer to stay in Italy and Dubai to continue to import items unto Bonny Island. And when we in NCDMB resist such attempts, they then go on blackmail spree,” he said.

He assured that as long as he remained the executive secretary of NDCMB, he would checkmate them especially as the Train 7 is coming.

“Trust me, these are people that we have blocked from their usual business practice, and now they have gone into series of blackmail and they will never succeed. This is also one commitment that I also make to the Bonny community: you will continue to see all manner of blackmail,” he said.

Wabote said NCDMB has a very clear process as there was a local content plan approved for the Train 7 project and that plan is sacrosanct and can be audited at any point in time.

“NLNG and the consortium of Saipem, Geoda and Dawoo know that and they will never deviate from it. Any deviation has to be approved by the NCDMB. So, you will continue to see all those blackmail tactics, particularly by some unscrupulous Italian contractors who think that the only way to get their way in the Train 7 project is to blackmail the Board. They will never succeed,” he said.

He said as far as local content was concerned, NCDMB would push for the establishment of more operational base of all the companies that would be involved in the Train 7 project in Bonny.

“If all businesses that came to do Train 1 to 6 had taken little space to establish themselves in Bonny, today this Island would have been something else,” he said.

On its part, The Promise said it would give jobs to indigenes. It said the Bonny outlet has up to 95 percent community employment ratio. The outlet has 60 workers so far while The Promise has about 600 nationwide.

In his welcome remarks, Alabi, a pastor, said the Bonny outlet, situated on King Perekule Road next to Hotel De Delaware, cost N200m to establish.

He said his decision to step into Bonny was inspired by the NCDMB which held a seminar for indigenous contractors in 2018 showing them how to tap into the Train 7.

In a solidarity message, Constance Nwokejiobi, director-general, Bonny Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA), said the chamber welcomed The Promise with both hands and would do anything possible to help it and other incoming companies that pass through the BOCCIMA to settle down.

“With the key focus of the current administration being diversification of the Bonny Kingdom economy by operationalising the existing sectors in Bonny to achieve the Green Bonny Vision, we believe this project will spur the interest of more businesses, thereby creating a ripple development and underscore the commitment of the Nigerian government to enhance human capital development and empowerment within the country,” he said.