The flour mill industry in Nigeria generates about 10 million jobs annually and has the potential to further diversify the country’s economy, the Managing Director, Olam Grains, owners of Crown Flour Mills Limited, Anurag Shukla, has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of Crown Flour customer forum in Abuja recently, Shukla noted that the business opportunity in the flour mill industry was still huge despite the millions employed in the sector.
He said, “This bakery or milling industry generates close to 10 million jobs on an annual basis. So this is something that is very close to our heart. This is because when the wheat is produced we make flour, the flour is being consumed by the biscuit sector and other bakers.
“There are almost 300,000 bakers across the country and they convert the flour into bread and then there are distributors and hawkers who carry the bread to the final consumers. So these are employment or jobs that are generated.”
Shukla added, “Also we have about four million tonnes of flour moving from the Southern part of Nigeria to the Northern region and this generates employment and business in the transport sector as well. Now this is only for bread flour, and we have biscuit, noodles and pasta sectors.
“So basically when you put all these sectors together you will get about 10 million people employed in one way or the other in the wheat or flour mill industry. Also, this is because what we produce is not a finished product but a raw material for people in other sectors.”
He advised investors not to be scared of investing in Nigeria, as so many business opportunities abound across the country.
“I don’t think investors should be scared of coming to Nigeria to invest. I think Nigeria is the place where the action is and basically there are over 200 million people with so much business potential. So investors should not be scared.”
