Nestlé Nigeria at 65: Telling Story of Impact Across Value Chains 

Nestle Nigeria Plc recently launched its ‘Nestle for Good’ campaign to tell its story of a 65-year journey, writes Charles Ajunwa

Nestle Nigeria Plc has been operating in Nigeria for the past 65 years, and its key brands – Maggi, Milo, Golden Morn, Nescafé and Nestle Pure Life, have become household names, especially at homes, offices, malls, markets, hospitality such as hotels, restaurants, recreational centres and other institutions across the country.

The company’s Head Office, nestled within the quiet ambience of Industrial Avenue, Ilupeju, Lagos, recently launched the ‘Nestlé for Good’, a nationwide campaign highlighting its impact across nutrition, inclusive growth, and environmental stewardship in Nigeria.

The company’s value chain impacts educational tourism, science tourism, agricultural tourism, food tourism, landscape tourism, and health tourism. It has also continued to support the country’s creative sector especially content creators, influencers, movie actors and actresses as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Managing Director, Nestle Nigeria PLC, Mr. Wassim Elhusseini, at the media launch, said creating shared value for the company is not just a programme, not just a tick in the box, but it’s the way the company does business, emphasising that the company will continue to focus on building thriving communities, empowering individuals, and families.

According to Elhusseini, “Nestlé has been part of Nigerian households for more than six decades, earning a place at family tables, in lunch boxes and at key life moments.

“This presence is a privilege and it comes with responsibility. When a company operates at scale, when it reaches millions of people every day, it must hold itself to a higher standard.

“It must be accountable not only for its products, but also for the broader impact it has on society, communities, and on the environment.

“Economic performance and social progress are not competing priorities; they are interconnected. Creating shared value is not a programme but the way we do business.”

The Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Lead at Nestlé Nigeria Plc, Victoria Uwadoka, said Nestle products are used in hospitality outlets such as hotels and restaurants.

“As my MD said in his speech, there’s a lot of responsibility on us. Yes, we know the tourism industry is very important. But you must agree with me that the problems are multiple and we cannot solve everything. So we need to focus on some areas. That’s why our focus is on nutrition, thriving communities, because if the community is thriving, then you can talk about tourism.

“Part of the work we do, when we’re talking about protecting the environment, we had a project that we tried to work on, and we’re still working on it, to clean up the waterways so that the rivers can flow freely. If the environment is clean is well-irrigated, then you can talk about tourism. Not when somebody wants to drink water, he/she has to go many miles to get water. So we focus on these areas. We know that as that improves with the communities, then those who are the drivers of tourism can work on that. We can add whatever we can to support that. But that’s not our core focus.”

She added, “What we do in the creative industry is more of a collaborative effort because you know that the creative industry is wide. It’s vast because you know that content creators, when it comes to videos, have those who are influencers. The thing with content creators, influencers, they have an audience, and we give them support as long as the audience aligns with Nestle’s audience. We have started to work with some influencers and content creators bringing them into our ecosystem to help us tell our stories more creatively.

“They help us tell our stories more impactfully, help us tell our stories in ways that actually resonate with the community, because it’s one thing to tell your story, there’s no one-cup fix there. So different ecosystems, different audiences are reached in different ways. So that’s what we’ve started to do. You will see the influencers working with Nescafé, the influencers working with Maggi, and influencers working with Milo as well. In the core North, we’re selecting different influencers because consumers are everywhere not just in the West.

“And as I mentioned before, when you improve living standards within a community, then you’re encouraging tourism because if a tourist comes, where’s water? Where’s the green area? Because tourists are not coming to see the same thing that they see in their environment. So I think that by improving communities, it’s also a creative opportunity for those communities to become tourist attractions.”

Uwadoka said apart from empowering youth, women, “Nestle for Good is a campaign that helps to bring together all of Nestle’s interventions to create shared value within the communities in which it operates. So this helps us to tell our story of how we are empowering communities to be more resilient.

“How are we protecting the environment and how are we empowering individuals and families through different projects. These projects include scholarship schemes, technical training, summer capacity building, access to water, grain quality development, and empowerment of farmers. So this campaign is a platform for some of those beneficiaries to tell their story about how our interventions are making an impact in their lives, in their families, and in their communities. That’s what the campaign is about.

“What I always say is that data does not lie. If you look at the data on where we are and where we want to go, then we wouldn’t need to tell you why there is a focus on women and the girl-child. Of course, there is focus on everybody else, but we need to pay special attention to this group because if we don’t, we’re actually losing the benefit of having about 50 per cent of our own community as a social system. We’re losing 50 per cent representation.

“That’s what this is about. It’s not just about what you do, what you don’t do. I’m sure that my fellow women here would like to say, we don’t want handouts, we don’t want special treatment. We just want a level playing field. Then you just let us go. That’s all we are asking for.”

On high cost of Nestle products, she said, “The high cost of Nestle products is relative because you have to look at the inputs, you have to look at the quality, you have to look at what goes into providing that quality nutrition. Yes, we know that the cost of inputs across Nigeria, across all sectors, across everything, not just food and beverages, has really increased. But, you know, as an organisation, we’re doing the best that we can. I can speak for Nestle.

“Why do we do farmer capacity building? It’s so that we can get grains, we can get the inputs, we can get the legumes, and so that keeps our costs at a minimum, because we’re not depending on importation solely for all our raw materials. So what I’ll promise you is that we will keep doing our best as things change, as things transform, because we want to give access to nutrition to everybody. Accessibility, affordability those are key priorities for us. We will continue to work to really optimise our operations so that we can keep prices at the point where the nutrition that we want to be for everybody is accessible to everybody. That’s the best that we can do within the environment in which we operate.”

On unlocking the power of food to address challenges such as malnutrition, food insecurity, and health issues beyond the awareness programmes, she said, “This campaign is not a new project. It is to talk about the things that we’re doing, the new programmes that we’re doing on the ground, the work that we do with dairy farmers, and the work that we do with grain farmers in the field. We are there every day.

“We have a project called Regenerative Agriculture that is ongoing, which has admitted over 20,000 farmers already in the field.”