Reports have confirmed that Procter & Gamble, a leading American multinational consumer goods company, is set to conclude its on-ground operations in Nigeria, reshaping the country into an import-centric market.
This manufacturing giant, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, now joins the expanding list of multinational corporations abandoning Nigeria in 2023 due to reasons primarily centered around business profitability.
Other multinational firms that bid farewell to Nigeria in 2023 include Unilever Nig (home care and skin cleansing division), GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, and Bolt Foods.
In their separate statements, these companies attributed the painful decision to leave Nigeria to their pursuit of an import-based model, aiming for business sustainability.
Preliminary investigations by The PUNCH suggest that the departure of these five companies may have resulted in the loss of approximately 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
P&G, being the largest among the five, exits Nigeria with a portfolio valued at $85bn, where Nigeria contributed $50 million in net sales. The departure of this company also signifies the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs from the economy.
GSK, on the other hand, left Nigeria with a market cap of N22bn. Despite having over 400 highly skilled workers such as pharmacists, microbiologists, biochemists, chemists, dentists, doctors, among others, the company stated that around 160 employees would bear the brunt of this shift in business strategy in Nigeria.
Unilever Nigeria, departing with a home care and skin cleansing division worth N50bn, had a workforce of 755 people as of 2021.
The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Francis Meshioye, had said that some international manufacturing firms were planning to exit Nigeria as a result of the power crisis, coupled with the unpredictability of the country’s foreign exchange rate before it was recently unified.
Meshioye said, “The downsizing of businesses in Nigeria, for instance, shows that businesses are not doing very well. So this power issue and other things have made some manufacturers, particularly international businessmen relocate from Nigeria to other countries.
