Erisco Foods CEO-President Discusses Food Production in Nigeria

Interview with Chief Eric O. Umeofia, CEO-President of Erisco Foods

What is the current state of Nigeria’s food industry?  

Recently, in this regime and the first time ever, our government has got plans for food sufficiency that is working for and practically right to do. But implementation has always been our problem. Before, it was the issue of administration – the power to administrate and implement – but now we have seen the zeal from administration, leaving the implementation.

Our President, Mr Buhari, has pledged to make Nigeria a food sufficient country and he wants us to produce what we eat and eat what we produce. That pronouncement alone has given us weight and encouraged us the manufacturers to invest more and to do more. However, the operative of government, not the authority, is the problem now. It is the operatives, not the government. Operatives of government are yet to understand what to do to create food sufficiency in this country or any other country.

What will you say is the biggest hurdle impeding the food production drive of Nigeria?

Well, I don’t see where it can work in anywhere at all, that someone is benefiting from the inefficiencies of food sufficiency in this country and you still bring in that person to fashion out how to produce food policy in this country. Be it a minister, a company or an importer; it is wrong anywhere. So, what is required by government to do is to assembly people that have the zeal and this country at heart to design a policy on how to make our country food sufficient. We have the food and the land, we have everything because and God blessed us with more but we are still relying on other lands because of the waste. Something like tomato paste is wasted. If bring back what is being wasted every year and produce them, we will be sufficient on tomato and even export.

We have everything it takes to export. The only thing is the support. That is where I said the operative of government are not helpful because some of them have been accused of being compromised or being in bed with those beneficiaries who do not want Nigeria to grow. This is where we have been coming out to say this is not right. So, government in their own wisdom has been thinking and responding to it. They have investigated and they are now beginning to know what is best for the industry.

I want to assure you that the area I am, we can be tomato sufficient in nine months if we are being supported. Our intention is to change the face of tomato planting, transportation and processing. We have 450,000 metric tonne capacity here, the biggest in Africa and fourth largest in the whole world but we are yet to operate just 20 percent of our capacity since we started. This is unbelievable.

I am a chief of tomato and that is passionate to me. I am also a manufacturer of the year 2015 and there is no way I will allow my own country to deteriorate, spoil and go down the drain.

What has been the response of consumers to these developments?

The response from consumers is very positive. The truth is, it will not have been so if not for this present government. The previous government was more concern with free money, which is the oil money, and because of that they didn’t want to think of home.

But I kept telling them that if you do not think of home, then it will be like you are building big skyscrapers on sand. When there’s a big breeze, it forces it down and when there is rain, it goes down; it can never stand by any standard. If there are no adequate measures to back up local industries, then the economy will die because we are supposed to be driving the economy, not anything person but we welcome everybody. What we have been saying is that we have to play on fair ground. What this means is if we continue to leave minor foods like tomatoes and onions, which are wasted every year, to be operated by foreigners, then nothing will work for us.

Do not forget that these things create more jobs. I want to tell you that the people we look up to are sometimes not interested and if it happens that way, we cannot force them because the private investors decide what to do with their money; it’s not any one’s money. So, if you corporate multinationals come to do business, they will be concern with where their profit is but they may be higher profit margins that will later hurt the economy.

However, we the Nigerian businesses will chose the small profit because it will help our country and it will help Nigeria to be great. We are here to serve. Yes, I need money to operate but my zeal to be a manufacturer is to help my country by serving humanity, not only money. In any case, no matter how you make your money, you cannot carry it around; it will only be in the banking system. What matters is how you have used your money to impact people, not when you duped people. That is why President Buhari is in politics. He is there because he wants to serve and to help change lives.

For one human being, how much money can do you need? You do not need plenty and the same thing applies in manufacturing; President Buhari wants to make impact in Nigeria by using manufacturing and so many people here are interested to support his government because he is sacrificing for our nation. That is what is lacking in our country; people do not have the zeal to sacrifice for this nation. The Chinese did it and now a lot of them are walking without work yet government pays them. That is the kind of thing we want to do here and so when we pack more money into our pockets, we are wounding the economy the more. We are creating danger for our future. Insecurity, kidnapping and all things like that bedevil us. But security is the business of all. As a cleaner, if you do your work well, you are providing security. If you do not do it right, there could be leakages that will cause the company big money and then we will not employ more people and more will die. That is why industry is the real sector and we, those who like Nigeria, are ready to help businesses to grow. We do not want a situation where they come and export our raw materials only to bring the finished goods back to us at higher prices.

What can foreign investors do to support the industrialization of Nigeria?

I think that if you, a foreign investor, love us, please come back to Nigeria and build industries and get the economy to grow. If you are working here and making your profit, we are not against it but when you take all our wealth outside, you do not care about what is happening here, then you are planting a big bomb that will explode when you do not expect.

And if you are not fair in what you are doing anywhere in the world, then you will lose more.
I have business in UAE and Angola. I know how the economy works there and so I have to respect the rule of law of the country. I have to be fair. If you do not do that you definitely cannot escape every time. One day, you will be tracked and arrested but when you are doing the right thing, Nigeria will welcome you, clap for you and we are happy people all the time.

For me, something we cannot give out now is job creation. We have to create jobs for our people. If most Nigerians have jobs now, this insecurity will go; there will be no Boko Haram or Niger Delta.
I can tell you that it is because of unemployment that is making some people to be there (in Boko Haram and Niger Delta). Some of them are there for long without working and they are used to free money. That is the danger.

If someone is used to getting 1,000 Naira, he will be happy but a time will come when you give that same person 100 Naira and he will not be happy because he is used to the big money and that is the problem. I want our economy to be able to create jobs because most of the so called experts running our economy impose what happens in other countries on Nigeria and that is totally wrong. This country is one that we should design its own economic framework and let it work.

How do you design it? It is often to hear people who are working in authority say they are bringing experts from Harvard or any of these countries, where things are working right, to Nigeria but that cannot solve our problem. We in Nigeria want to solve our problem. We want to do design our own economy.

For example, we in Erisco have innovated a very good technology that nobody has ever innovated in converting tomatoes to paste. I can tell you that the system we are running now is not in China, Britain or America. Yet, we are giving better results and better quality of tomato. So, because our country does not care, some of them think that nothing good can come from Nigeria but that is wrong. Until our people realise that we have good things here, it will continue to be a challenge.

What can manufacturers like you do to support the Nigerian economy to grow?

We Nigerians have not diversified our economy. That is why over 50 years down the line, we are still suffering. Also, when people do not support government to grow, then they blame government but they are the ones causing the problem.

Take for instance, if I have Nigeria goods that are better than the foreign ones, people will still chose the foreign ones and how can President Buhari stop money from going overseas, when you the citizens are not buying my goods? Most people do not know what they are talking about yet they come and say they want to make infrastructure for us to be able to produce right so we can sell right. It cannot happen that way, not now and not in 20 years and you cannot just say that we should stop local production for imports because they are cheaper. So what do we do? We use policy to stop foreign for Nigeria to grow. 

For example, if everything imported here is sold for 50 Naira and a Nigerian substitute is old for 75 Naira, I will advise Nigerians to buy the local one because 25 Naira more helps this country. The whole thing is here and if you buy the 50 Naira because it is cheap, you will be killing yourself more than you are expecting because we use what we have to grow the economy. If you do not buy from me in my country, who will buy from me? How can we grow and how can your child be guaranteed of work? 

These are the things that Nigerians never know and no one is telling them. I think our Information Minister should keep discussing these with these people to choose local. Go to Angola and see; anything they have from their own people, they are happy to eat it. They say this is our own and they are happy to eat it.

Here in Nigeria, we are happy to carry our money away and continue to cry to the president. Nigeria is like a person that is over 50 years old but has bone fractures. You need time for the bone to heal but the issue with us is that we have two bones broken at the same time because we are too interested in foreign goods and oil money and that is even more dangerous to the system.

As far as I am concerned, anything oil money, apart from oil from the farm, is creating problems in this country and will continue or create until we diversify our economy. This is because people will continue to cross their legs, thinking that billions of Naira are coming and because of that how do you expect that person to go to the farm or factory? We here are sacrificing for this nation and they cannot match us with people who import.

It is a pity that we are telling them that we are the solution to imports and we want to help this nation, yet some of the technocrats and the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) do not believe us. They want to be doing what may compromise this nation and that is their problem. What we are looking for in Nigeria will be gotten but that is if all of us are real to ourselves, our government and the country.

If that happens, I tell you, the economy will be different in two years. We do not need people to cry that some other people should come and invest here. If we repair this economy well, people will be coming to invest. It’s just like a beautiful lady: if you are well enhanced, you will get many men. That is the same with an economy. If it is fine, people will praise it and come to invest.

If you check the number of foreign investments in this country, you will realise that the genuine ones are very few because they see a lot of loopholes that our leaders do not know and these so called investors normally capitalise on it, lift our money and go away yet when we the Nigerian businessmen talk, these leaders do not listen to us because they do not know.

We are senior manufacturers already. I have a lot of manufacturing firms already. I am not interested in plenty money and that is why I am not doing oil money. I am interested in small profit and creating jobs and that is why I am into manufacturing, where I create a lot of jobs for people. Whenever I am coming in and I see a lot of people entering the factory, I get happy because I have helped some people to make a living; that is what satisfies me, not plenty money.

China, Singapore and Japan are not exporting oil yet they are doing well. You can see that everybody is busy trying to look elsewhere from oil. Here in Nigeria, there is plenty work for people to do but the problem is how to connect them and the more you allow foreign imports here to kill local goods, the more danger you are creating. This is because it denies people of work and the more we leave people to roam without work, the more dangerous it is because human being must exist. Either they work legally or work illegally.

Tell us the story behind the growth of Erisco Foods.

Erisco Foods started business in 1981, in Sokoto in Northern Nigeria. Because of straightforwardness, we have credibility, we do not cheat and we make things right, we have grown up to this size. The problem of companies is, when you do not speak the truth, you die easily and truth does not require a process, it is a straight forward thing.

By the time we invented Erisco Bonpet, a fire safety product, we realised that we needed to always go for what will make us alive. We had also invested in fire prevention business before Erisco Bonpet and that was a big one but we were pushed away by standards issues. Importers pushed us all the way to Angola but that was a blessing in disguise. We went to Angola and made more money and came back to invest in food and the same import cabal wants to kill us. With that we say no, it’s not possible.

We have invested heavily in our products, about US$150 million, in this one already and we plan to make one million metric tonnes in the northern area by the third quarters. We will also roll out a lot of products in the coming months.  We have our local gari, which used not to be common. Now, we have put milk and sugar and packaged it well and it is moving well.

We have a lot of things, including seasonings. We have actually developed about 22 brands and we are prepared to innovate and add more brands. Truth is, these 22 brands are capable of employing a minimum of 2,000 workers if each of them is properly established.

How can government help Erisco to expand and contribute meaningfully to the diversification drive of the Nigerian economy?

If we develop them well, our target actually is to employ 50,000 people in the next two to three years, provided we get the necessary support. If we get just 20 per cent support of what we are looking for, it will enable us to expand and employ more. We do not want so much support, just 20 per cent support of overseas markets and you will see what we can do.

We are determined to help Nigeria and the president to succeed but I do not just want to succeed here; I want to succeed outside of Nigeria. If you go out there, I am known as tomato king and I am tomato king because of the investments and sacrifices I made in this industry. When there were no foreign exchange restrictions, I refused to import because import is not right. Six years ago, I refused to import any foreign product into this country because I see it not to be right and that is because I am determined to help my people.

That is why when everyone wants to talk anything, I get provoked easily and I get provoked because they have everything it takes to ensure that this country is delivered but they won’t. If you see the minister or any government official, they will want to say things but I will say you are wrong and you are wrong not because you are a minister. In any case, I do not want to be a minister or governor. I do not even want government contract. No, I do not want that.

All I want is for the economy to be good for businesses to grow and people employed. If that happens, I will be happy with the government. We are here to tell the world that we Nigerians can deliver this nation economic wise. We have done it in the political wise, so why can’t we do it economic wise?

Why should we allow our economy to be colonized by foreigners again? So I want to develop our economy, our Nigerian economy. It is only through developing it that we can talk and be friendly anytime, otherwise, when I come to beg you, you will look down on me. But when we are equal, I will help you and you will also help me and we will be fine. An example is these deportations that go on. Everywhere you go, you hear people talking of wanting to deport Nigerians. Meanwhile, Nigeria has what it takes to match up with the world. We have plenty opportunities here yet we go out there to look for cobwebs.

Every state in this country is worth trillions. So, why are the states complaining when they can encourage manufacturers to change things in the next two to three years? That is just automatic. It is not difficult yet we are all waiting for Abuja (oil) money.

That is why I am risking my life and business to project this country and nobody seems to care about what I am doing. Anyway, I am happy that God knows what I am doing. In fact, if I die, I die happily because I know I have tried my best. As a human being, I know I must try to support other humanities, even beyond Nigerians. But if I have plenty money but does not support people, they will not treat me special when I die. That is why I am saying that President Buhari should continue to do the good things. If he removes corruption in this country, the economy will be fine. If we convince our banks in this country to develop their own customers, develop their own future with interest in the long term, say 15-20 years, it will help the economy.

We do not need to think only of short term. You know, I told them 10 years ago that if you do not start manufacturing, you are killing your future and that is what is happening now. Here in Nigeria, the bank cross their legs and use government funds to make profit. That is not banking.
I have business in UAE and banks there do not do that.

The issue of economic diversification is not only a challenge in Nigeria; it applies to other countries, too.

Well, it is true that diversification is not only a challenge for Nigeria but everywhere. But you must also understand that Nigeria is the capital of Africa and we are expected to do the right thing. We are bigger than all of them and so we should be leading and telling the others what to do but that is not the case. I think some other countries like Angola are better than us. In Angola for instance, you cannot import wrong things and go away with it. Never! If you try, they will jail you.

But here, someone will say he is a foreign investor and will make a good submission of business to you. You will think he is correct, not knowing he/she forged it. We have illegal people here forging documents yet nobody is talking of it yet Nigerians are there without work all because of these people. What is this? This cannot happen in other countries. 

But the good thing is, if you need to fix Nigeria’s economy, it is possible. If I wanted money, I would’ve just taken my manufacturing equipment to China and I will be in money but nobody will hear of me again. But one day, I will die and someone will judge me, simple.

Again, if I stay 10,000 years on earth, I will not lack, so why should I continue packing money all for me alone? This is why I want to make way for people to join manufacturing because we are not a manufacturing nation. People are afraid to join it because governments have disappointed them in the past.

Fortunately however, President Buhari wants to say ‘believe me, I won’t disappoint you’ and we are saying that if they are talking good intentions, we are there to support it. But the other thing is, we have to come here on the same level playing field. I won’t produce at US$10 per carton and you will import from China at $4 per carton and you will come here and want to compete. If they allow you, how do I exist and how will the Nigerian economy move? The worse thing is the imported ones are always substandard. So, this is simple arithmetic; government just needs to say, ‘fine we do not need your substandard’ and because of that people will establish factories and the economy will grow. 

Here, I do not know. Things do not work well. If not for President Buhari, I wouldn’t have wanted to have anything to do with manufacturing in this country again because I suffered more and lost more money. Yet, I am rather making more money in other countries I invested. Because I am a Nigerian, I strive to ensure that our country is well respected all over the world. That is one thing that we all need to do. For me, if we do not fight economic liberalization, then it is better we allow people to colonise us politically and control the economy because if you do not have the money, your political set up will be zero. 

But if you have your money, you operate the way you want. An example is UAE, where there’s no democracy yet they are doing well. The same applies in Saudi Arabia. If you do not have money and do not control economic policies, then your economic stability will be tampered with because the one who will give you the money will control you politically.

That is why I keep on telling our people that it is not enough to control our political set up and leave the economic bit away. If we do that we are causing more damage to our future. If you see that 25 billion Naira every day is used to import food, and one billion dollars is used to import tomato paste and we waste 25 per cent of it, then by the time you know, we will not have any money again to buy because, if you spent more, you will be left with nothing to spend again.

You seem to be against Nigeria importing goods.

No, I am not against us buying aeroplane, computers or automobile in this country because we need to develop but for us to buy common things like tomato paste and rice, then I am sad. The other time, the Japanese Ambassador was asking if Nigeria is still importing rice and that is a one billion dollar question. In Japan, if you import rice, they kill or jail you.

Why are we still importing our stable foods? Because, canals do not want us to produce and if you stop it, the big money they are making will go down the drain and that is not good for them. It should not always be that because someone is getting some billions that should be why the whole nation should suffer, no. We should rather help our people to grow rather than waiting for grants and things like that. It is not fair.

You see, people vote government and government appoint ministers. In turn, people use government money to pay ministers. But one day, the same people who pay tax will tell you that no, you the minister, you are wrong. We will not take this one again. In India, their former minister called on the country to ban all Nigerians from their country, yet none of our ministers responded. That is an insult and a provocation to the whole nation because, the same Indian comes here and causes havoc yet the Nigerian there is living in swam. Because they have taken their jobs and forced them out of Nigeria, they the Nigerians are now forced to go there and find trouble.

If I am the president, I will ban Indian people too. Let them go back to their country because we do not need them to survive. We are capable of surviving by ourselves. They come here in the name of foreign investors but actually, they are foreign exploiters, simple. If it is me, I will say if you do not want to be fair in what you are doing, then we too don’t need you. 

As for me and Erisco Group, I am helping my government to grow. That is my position. I do not need anything from them. What I need is what is guaranteed by the law of the land. But they are supporting more foreigners than insiders and that is what is making me to be provoked.

If I close my business now, I will still be a billionaire anywhere in the world and so if you attack me for contributing to the growth of the economy, then you are doing the country wrong, not me.
You see, every day, they do things to stampede me but I will not agree. I will not agree because if I say these people are provoking me and because of that I will be silent, then who will suffer? It will be the 1,000s of people who are employed, not me.

If Nigeria must go on well, then it is obvious that we need to do things that are right. We should count ourselves as part and do things right. I have no other country than Nigeria and because of that I must defend my country.

I am a chief of tomato and that is passionate to me. I am also a manufacturer of the year 2015 and there is no way I will allow my own country to deteriorate, spoil and go down the drain.

Those foreigners have two countries. If they spoil Nigeria, they carry their passports and go but I will remain here and that is why I will not allow things to go bad. I am purely for good service and I want to develop this country!

 

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