Employment spikes by 48,532 in food, beverage, tobacco sector

Nigeria’s food, beverage and tobacco industry created an additional 48,532 jobs in 2013. But all these jobs were created in the second half of 2013 (H2 2013), as revealed by data from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

MAN’s data showed estimated total number of employment in the sector in 2012 as 306,031.

The food, beverage and tobacco sector is dominated by key players such as the Nestlé Foods Nigeria plc, Cadbury Nigeria plc, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, UACN plc, Guinness Nigeria plc, Nigerian Breweries plc, SevenUp Bottling Company Limited, and British American Tobacco (Nigeria) Limited.

Others are Dangote Flour Mills, Chi Limited, Atlantic Shrimpers Limited, Barnaly Nigeria Limited, Dansa Foods Limited, Flour Mills of Nigeria plc, De-United Foods, Golden Pasta Company Limited and Kesserwani Industrial Limited, among numerous others.

On the other hand, wood and wood products makers created a total of 3,953 jobs all in H2 2013. The estimated total of jobs in the sector by end of 2012 was 50,332, says MAN. Players in this captive industry include Caprisage Exports Company Limited and R.A Trading and Investment Limited, among others.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate is 24 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Youth unemployment in the country is 54 percent. NBS survey also shows in 2013, 2.1 million people entered the employment market, but only 1.6 million of them were able to gain jobs. Of the 1.6 million jobs, 88 percent were for limited skills, mainly secondary school leavers.

“Manufacturers need to create more jobs. There is need to create at least 2 million jobs in 2014,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and co-ordinating minister for the economy, during an interactive session between her and MAN members in Lagos, recently.