The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, the umbrella body for employers, has disclosed that at least 15 multinationals have either divested or partially closed operations in the country in the last three years.

In an exclusive interview with The PUNCH, the Director-General of NECA, Adewale Oyerinde, warned that the consequences of the massive job losses across sectors would continue to create insecurity challenges and increase the occurrence of child labour, among others.

“It is worrisome to note that in the last three years, over 15 organisations with a combined value-chain staff strength of over 20,000 employees have either divested or partially closed operations.

“This has dire consequences not only for organised businesses but also for labour, government revenue and the households,” he noted.

NECA expressed concerns about rising unemployment in the country due to global business divestment and local closures.

Oyerinde cautioned, “The consequences of these massive job losses across sectors will continue to create insecurity challenges, increase the occurrence of child labour (as children will be forced to become breadwinners), adversely affect the disposable income of families, erode the purchasing power of individuals and drastically reduce economy’s output.”

He noted that when NECA examined the exits of prominent companies like GSK, Sanofi, Procter & Gamble, Nampak, and others that had been doing business in Nigeria for decades and were huge employers of labour, it was worried about the ripple effect on the broader business ecosystem.

Unilever Nigeria announced its exit from the home care and skin cleansing markets in Nigeria in November, saying it did so “to find a more sustainable and profitable business model”.

Procter & Gamble was the last to announce its exit from the country last year.

“Within the value chain, numerous enterprises serve as suppliers to these major corporations, and their sustainability is significantly compromised when the primary businesses they cater to face extinction.

“The survival prospects of these secondary businesses are at stake, and their employees are also at risk, as the departure of the main clients could lead to their demise. The crisis within the value chain deserves more attention than it currently receives.

BigBlackPreek:
Port Harcourt that use to house many multinational corporations including oil companies and oil servicing companies have become a shadow of itself in terms of job opportunities SMH

BigBlackPreek:
Port Harcourt that use to house many multinational corporations including oil companies and oil servicing companies have become a shadow of itself in terms of job opportunities SMH

Ofodirinwa:
Africans are clowns.

You will continue courting 'FOREIGN INVESTMENT' as if it is a good thing. You will not ask yourself what is good about it.
Ok it 'creates jobs', but the minute one kpim happens, they pack up and leave. Imagine creating useless jobs that disappear when the economy is bad. Mind you, when the economy is bad is when you need jobs. So now you have a situation where when an economic problem is supposed to be a 2, it immediately becomes a 10 because you're depending on people who are ready to run when any sign of stress appears.

Please. Let them leave, and let us stop trying to pretend that 'multinationals' are worthwhile assets to ANY economy.

LOVEALAIGBO:


I think multinationals have their place in a developing/3rd-World economy such as ours! They bring in technology, training, adherence to health and safety in the workplace and better staff welfare! All they ask for is a responsive and responsible gov’t in the country they operate in….as well as predictable economic metrics they can use to plan ahead and not incur losses that wipe out any little profit they make! This is where Nigeria is lacking!

Ofodirinwa:
Africans are clowns.

You will continue courting 'FOREIGN INVESTMENT' as if it is a good thing. You will not ask yourself what is good about it.
Ok it 'creates jobs', but the minute one kpim happens, they pack up and leave. Imagine creating useless jobs that disappear when the economy is bad. Mind you, when the economy is bad is when you need jobs. So now you have a situation where when an economic problem is supposed to be a 2, it immediately becomes a 10 because you're depending on people who are ready to run when any sign of stress appears.

Please. Let them leave, and let us stop trying to pretend that 'multinationals' are worthwhile assets to ANY economy.

Ofodirinwa:
Africans are clowns.

You will continue courting 'FOREIGN INVESTMENT' as if it is a good thing. You will not ask yourself what is good about it.
Ok it 'creates jobs', but the minute one kpim happens, they pack up and leave. Imagine creating useless jobs that disappear when the economy is bad. Mind you, when the economy is bad is when you need jobs. So now you have a situation where when an economic problem is supposed to be a 2, it immediately becomes a 10 because you're depending on people who are ready to run when any sign of stress appears.

Please. Let them leave, and let us stop trying to pretend that 'multinationals' are worthwhile assets to ANY economy.

MadamExcellency:


Ignorance has eaten you. How much do Nigerian companies pay? Training employees? Living wages? No. Technology transfer of technical know-how, nothing.

Ofodirinwa:
Africans are clowns.

You will continue courting 'FOREIGN INVESTMENT' as if it is a good thing. You will not ask yourself what is good about it.
Ok it 'creates jobs', but the minute one kpim happens, they pack up and leave. Imagine creating useless jobs that disappear when the economy is bad. Mind you, when the economy is bad is when you need jobs. So now you have a situation where when an economic problem is supposed to be a 2, it immediately becomes a 10 because you're depending on people who are ready to run when any sign of stress appears.

Please. Let them leave, and let us stop trying to pretend that 'multinationals' are worthwhile assets to ANY economy.

JagabanB:

They will tell u that u are saying this because u support Tinubu.
I for one h8 foreign investments.
Sign of distress, they will pull out.
What I always advocate for are indigenous companies, Dangote cement will not foId because of economic distress but it can foId from Zambia or Ghana because of that.

Ofodirinwa:


exactly. You'll get one useles company that is nothing in their home, the government will give them free land, no taxes, no regulation, so that one useless governor or president can take a picture with a white man that doesn't even have the respect to dress up. The useless company will operate for 2 years, then they will hear that somebody had a car accident in the same town they're in, pack up and run away. Whatever nonsense job the create, gone.

At that job, they will be abusing all the blacks in the blacks country, shoveling nigerian money to foreign bank accounts and we'll still be talking about 'they created jobs'.

Why not give the free land and tax incentives to a local company? What about a company being foreign makes it a better 'investor' than a local one? If you give that free land to Dangote, or Ibeto, or Glo, what makes that worst than one useless Chinese company? IMF brainwashing.

Parachoko:
Fake News. There's no Multinational Company operating in Nigeria again because of Tulumbu

BigBlackPreek:
Port Harcourt that use to house many multinational corporations including oil companies and oil servicing companies have become a shadow of itself in terms of job opportunities SMH

Ofodirinwa:
Africans are clowns.

You will continue courting 'FOREIGN INVESTMENT' as if it is a good thing. You will not ask yourself what is good about it.
Ok it 'creates jobs', but the minute one kpim happens, they pack up and leave. Imagine creating useless jobs that disappear when the economy is bad. Mind you, when the economy is bad is when you need jobs. So now you have a situation where when an economic problem is supposed to be a 2, it immediately becomes a 10 because you're depending on people who are ready to run when any sign of stress appears.

Please. Let them leave, and let us stop trying to pretend that 'multinationals' are worthwhile assets to ANY economy.

BigBlackPreek:
Port Harcourt that use to house many multinational corporations including oil companies and oil servicing companies have become a shadow of itself in terms of job opportunities SMH