Recession: Erico threatens to relocate from Nigeria.

About 1,500 workers of the Erisco Foods Limited may be out of jobs in the next 30 days if the President and Chief Executive Officer of the tomato paste manufacturing company, Chief Eric Umeofia, makes good his threat to relocate from Nigeria. The foremost manufacturer has given the Federal Government the ultimatum to implement the right policies to support indigenous manufacturers as done in other countries or else he would move his production base out of Nigeria. He addressed a press conference at the Corporate Head Office of Erisco in Lagos where he accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of deliberately favouring foreigners at the detriment of indigenous manufacturers. However, a mild drama ensued at the premises of the company at Alausa Ikeja as more than a thousand of the workers staged a peaceful protest calling on the Federal Government to save their jobs as the CEO threatened to relocate.      Umeofia who disclosed that he was doing well in Dubai and Angola before deciding to move his investment worth over USD$150m to Nigeria said he had made up his mind to relocate if nothing was done to salvage the plight of local manufacturers in 30 days. He said the CBN allocated foreign exchange to foreigners to import frozen fish and paste that could be produced locally while it refused to allocate any forex to Erisco for the past three months to bring in raw materials. He said his workforce presently stands at 2050 while 50 would have resumed by next Monday but the recruitment process was suspended, warning that 1,500 would be sacked in 30 days if the government failed to address its plights. He alleged that an Indian firm was recently allocated USD15.1m at N280.00/1USD while Erisco continues to run its factory with forex sourced from parallel market at over N450/USD1