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Hamid Ayodeji
The manufacturing sector and particularly the food and beverage sub-sector remain crucial to every economy of the world and the realities in Nigeria are not different. In recent years, the performance and contribution of these category players to the Nigerian economy has grown in value and relevance.
Data from the World Trade Organisation states that Nigeria ranks as the largest food market in Africa, with significant investment in the local industry and a high level of imports. The food and beverage sector is estimated to contribute 22.5 per cent of the manufacturing industry value, and 4.6 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Prior to the 1980s, production capacity of local farmers was somewhat sub-optimised, with little or no investment in local production or local sourcing of raw materials. Employment and other inherent economic potentials of the food industry were also untapped and sub-optimally leveraged.
The economic recession following the global fall in oil prices in the early 1980s has been credited to opening up the local manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
The subsequent economic “austerity” rise saw a recorded decline in inflow of foreign products, which in turn led to a sharp surge in the...