FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR: 3 MILLION WORKERS MAY LOSE JOBS TO FOREX CRISIS

Agronigeria

In what may be termed a fallout of the current forex crisis rocking Nigeria’s economy,Organized  Labour, yesterday,expressed fear that the food, beverage and tobacco sector of the nation’s economy was on the verge of shutting down .

This is with over three million jobs becoming at risk due to the inability of companies to source foreign exchange to import raw material for operations.

Already,major companies in the sector, such as ,7-UP Bottling Company Plc, Nigerian Breweries Limited,Nigerian Flour Mills, Guinness Plc, Nigerian Bottling Company, Friesland Campina Wamco Plc, among others, have sought for discussions with labour on retrenchment of workers.

Reports indicate that in the last three months, no fewer than 1,500 workers had been sacked in the sector as employers seek ways of coping with foreign exchange crisis, among other challenges.

Speaking to newsmen in Lagos,officials of  Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB, called for Government’s intervention on the crisis if the jobs of the over three million are to be saved.

President of FOBTOB, Quadri Olaleye, claimed that employers in the sector had devised every opportunity to sack workers, adding that between the 2012 and the first half of 2015, over 3,000 workers were sacked in the guise of re-engineering, restructuring, right sizing, downsizing, redundancy and re-organisation. He lamented that over the years, the same excuse of difficult business terrain, dwindling profit, irregular and insufficient power supply, and so on had been given.

He said: “The current situation has reached a pathetic level, because it seems all the employers in our sector are in competition with each other on who can lay off the most workers. “Every company is now calling for a downsizing of the workforce, and this time under the guise of lack of foreign exchange due to the Federal Government’s recent policy on foreign exchange. “We are aware that not all the raw materials used in our industry can be sourced locally. Where they can be found, they are mostly not available in commercial quantity. “That is why it is imperative that the government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, takes a second look at the policy on foreign exchange to avoid shutting down the companies in our industry.” According to him, companies mostly hit by the crisis are intellectually lazy to engage in research development on alternative sources of raw materials.

‪#‎Agriculture‬ is not the magic solution#

‪#‎Agriculture‬ is not the magic solution#

Simon Kolawole

Anytime I hear Nigerian presidents, ministers, governors, economists, analysts and commentators declare that agriculture is the alternative to oil, and that the solution to Nigeria’s economic woes is to return to the farm, I am tempted to jump up and ask at full volume: “Who agriculture alone don epp?” Some states have hilariously declared work-free days for civil servants to go to the farm. It would be nice to see those farms and how well the emergency farmers are doing. We’ve been told again and again that agriculture, as Nigeria’s biggest employer of labour, is the magic solution to unemployment, that we will export agricultural produce and earn plenty forex. Well done.

I’ve been hearing this fairy-tale all my life. When I was a primary school kid, Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, then head of state, asked Nigerians to tighten their belts because the oil boom would not last forever. He added drama by tightening his military belt on TV. He launched Operation Feed the Nation. My grandfather responded by setting up a garden in our backyard. President Shehu Shagari did Green Revolution. The structural adjustment programme (SAP) of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida was basically about diversifying into agriculture. In different shapes, forms, sizes and packaging, we have been talking about agriculture, agriculture and agriculture forever.

Since we love glamorising our exploits in the export of cocoa, coffee, palm oil and groundnuts before the oil boom doom, I will pick on just cocoa to dispel this ill-conceived notion and never-ending campaign that agriculture is the magic wand. We used to be the biggest producers of cocoa in the world. Chief Obafemi Awolowo utilised cocoa revenue to develop the south-west when he was premier of the region in the 1950s. But we dropped the ball along the line and Cote d’Ivoire overtook us. And now we are lamenting that we are nowhere to be found. The solution, therefore, is for the south-west to revive the cocoa farms. Oh, the good old days!

World Bank’s Agriculture Funding In Nigeria Hits N75.2bn

LEADERSHIP

Fresh facts have emerged that not less than $380 million, about N75, 240 billion has been spent by the World Bank on the development of agriculture in Lagos and some other states of the country in the last eight years.

The Lagos State commissioner for agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, who made the revelation at a press conference in Lagos said the $200 million National Fadama Development Project (FADAMA) grant was accessed by six states while the remaining $180 million was accessed by five states including Lagos.

Nigeria: Monsanto's Plot to Take Over Nigeria's Agriculture

Allafrica

As everyone knows, one American company called Monsanto has been on a determined march to take over agricultural production all over the world and enslave all farmers and countries to their commercial blood sucking logic. They have finally found a bridgehead into Nigeria where a door has been opened to allow them enter and takeover. They have been allowed to initiate so-called experimental farms to produce cotton and maize. Their point of entry has been the irresponsible National Biotechnology Development Agency, which has been compromised by Monsanto to provide an entry point to take over our agriculture.

This week, I write to support the great work currently being carried out by Nnimmo Bassey and his team at the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) to resist the dangerous takeover of our agriculture by Monsanto. The Foundation has exposed the fact that GMOs have been approved to be grown in Nigeria and that the approval was surreptitious. There is an argument whether the approval was for a two-year trial process or for permanent production and for me, both must be opposed. At no time has the Nigerian Government taken a policy decision to approve GMOs and given the health dangers alone of this technology, it is irresponsible to allow this. We cannot allow the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to sell our future for some temporary inducement they have received from Monsanto. How was it allowed that Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Ltd would register in the country and start production without explicit approval the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly?

US partners Nigeria on agriculture with $2m

THE PUNCH

The United States Agency for International Development says it has earmarked $2m to support the Nigerian government’s effort to develop the agricultural sector.

It added that it would partner local agribusinesses – Babban Gona and Hello Tractor – to assist farmers in accessing smart tractors and improved seeds.

The US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission, Mrs. Maria Brewer, according to a statement on Monday, spoke in Abuja at a gathering attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh.

AGRICULTURE: A FORBIDDEN KINGDOM FOR NIGERIAN YOUTHS?

By Kunle Oguntegbe

Renowned Development Economist, Arthur Lewis once said, ‘if Agriculture remains stagnant, industries cannot grow’. For an agrarian economy with a total population of 183 Million, 70 percent of which are youth, isn’t it amazing to know that only 23 percent of the youth are involved in Agriculture? What an irony!

Prior to the discovery of oil in the 1950s, Nigeria used to be a top exporter of food and agro-allied products. However, due to the economic mismanagement, laziness on the part of the youth, relative neglect of agricultural resources as well as population upsurge amongst others, the country has lost her top position among agro-food exporting countries in the universe.

Lokpobiri Assures Nigerians of Bumper Harvest.

Source: Agro News Nigeria

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, on Monday gave an assurance that the country would have sufficient food in the next harvest season

Lokpobiri the assurance while speaking with State House correspondents after he led a foreign agro-investor, Wells –San Carlos Agro Farms Ltd., on a courtesy visit to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The attributed the current high cost of foodstuff due to the lack of investment in agriculture in 2015 due to the change in government.

“That is why you are seeing a scarcity of rice and the price has gone up to about N25,000 a bag.

“But this year, the President (Buhari) has given us all the support we have requested to see how we can support farmers the little way we can.