How manufacturers serve foreign interest

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Erisco Foods Nigeria Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia has accused the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) of serving foreign interest at the expense of the Nigerian economy.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian Umeofia said MAN which was formed more than 50 years ago by United Africa Company of Nigeria (UAC) to defend their business are still more focus on those interests rather than helping to grow the Nigerian economy.

“They are not here to grow Nigeria economy rather they are here to carry out their business without problem”

He alleged that these set of manufacturers always present beautiful proposals to the federal government and when they are approved, they disappoint Nigerians by producing substandard products which they can not produce for people in their own countries.

He wondered why these manufacturers can’t buy their tomato for processing in Nigeria when the country harvests tomato twice a year and their own countries harvest once a year yet they export to Nigeria. Umeofia who argued that they continue to import tomato concentrates when the product is wasting in the North queried the rationale behind their refusal to have processing plants in the north to take advantage of the region abundance.

According to him when he informed these foreign manufacturers that the Federal Government would awake to tackle unnecessary importation, they declared that it was not possible. However, when the Buhari led government introduced stringent measures to check foreign exchange abuse and placed ban on importation of items available in the country they became afraid he said. Their meeting with the government on the issue to effect a reversal of the ban was unsuccessful he said.

“When the government had pleaded with us to find a way out, I did. But they refused to find a way out, because they are foreigners. Nothing concerns them with the economy. The more the economy suffers the more they are happy. Because we can not be disorganised forever, now that we are starting to be organised, they are being checkmated and they are afraid now.”