Boosting the workforce across Nestlé's value chain

Thousands of people are developing their knowledge and capabilities as part of Nestlé's continued investment and employment commitment in Central and West Africa.

As one of the world's fastest growing populations, Africa is looking set to reach about 441 million people by 2020.

To meet the needs to the increasing population, Nestlé is backing the region by creating jobs and enhancing workforce skills through its employment schemes and training initiatives.

From farmer to employee level, Africans are taking part in training opportunities, gaining valuable work experience and becoming entrepreneurs, boosting industry growth in Africa.

Positive about Central and West Africa

'We have been operating in Central and West Africa since the 1950s. This highlights our long-term commitment to, and confidence in, the future of the region,' said Kais Marzouki, Market Head for Nestlé Central and West Africa Region (CWAR).
Nestlé CWAR, which accounts for well over half of Nestlé's business in sub-Saharan Africa, is experiencing strong growth. This is the result of significant investments over the past decade.
Nestlé's investment and employment efforts highlight the importance of African Industrialization Day on November 20, which aims to motivate the international community's commitment to the industrialization of Africa.

Investing in the region

This year alone, Nestlé has invested more than CHF 48 million in its production sector in Central and West Africa.

This includes buying new equipment and financially supporting its energy and water saving projects. In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, a new extract evaporator was installed to reduce water and steam consumption.

The company has also enhanced its production capacity by buying a new high-capacity roller dryer for the production line at the Agbara factory in Nigeria, to meet consumer demand for family cereals

Golden Morn

.

Investment is also being made to meet Nestlé and national environmental, food and quality standards. At its Tema factory in Ghana, employees are provided with improved healthcare, canteen and training amenities.

This year, the company has further invested CHF 6.5 million in the Nestlé Quality Assurance Centre (NQAC), based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. It is one of the 26 NQACs worldwide and the second located in Africa and is dedicated to the analysis of chemical contaminants, specifically mycotoxins and pesticides, in food and food ingredients used by Nestlé.

Farmer level

Farmers and their communities are able to improve their livelihoods, thanks to Nestlé's ten-year pledge launched in 2009, which aims to help farmers run profitable farms, improve social conditions and source high-quality, sustainable cocoa.

Last year the

Nestlé Cocoa Plan

made an impact on over 36,000 Ivorian cocoa farmers, who were trained through capacity-building programmes.

In the same period over 1.3 million high-yield cocoa plantlets were distributed to farmers in the region. Coffee farmers are also benefiting from practical farming training and free plantlets.

As part of the

Nescafé Plan

, nearly 14,000 farmers were trained on good agricultural practices and over 1.8 million high-yield coffee plantlets were distributed to them in 2014.

Developing young talent

Young African professionals are also progressing in the industry due to Nestlé's efforts.

The company is working in partnership with local universities to recruit graduates at its

Shared Services Centre

in Accra, Ghana, which opened in 2011, to enhance their skills in an international work environment.

Nestlé also opened a training centre at its factory in Agbara, Nigeria in the same year to help local students and employees develop skills in different areas of manufacturing engineering.

Students are offered a chance to study for an internationally recognised vocational qualification over the period of 18 months. The initiative looks set to be replicated in Côte d'Ivoire next year.

As part of the qualification, Nestlé selected a group of

five engineers to gain international experience in Switzerland

, before being offered employment at Nestlé Nigeria. The four-month scholarship was partly sponsored by the Swiss government in a first-of-its-kind agreement between Switzerland and an African country.

Creating jobs

Job opportunities in Central and West Africa are continuing to increase as part of Nescafé's

'My Own Business'

(MYOWBU) and 'puschcart' schemes.

These programmes, led by Nestlé Professional, the Nestlé business that supplies the food service out-of-home industry, aim to promote Nescafé coffee brand in busy public areas such as open markets, stadiums and bus stops.

It guides operators appointed by Nestlé Professional to manage their street-vending business and gives them the tools and expertise to run their own enterprise.

To date, more than 500 operators have joined the programme.

They are given training on sales, management, hygiene standards, safety requirements and quality levels. Nestlé helps them find safe and clean kitchen areas to run their business from.

Each operator recruits and employs about 8-10 street vendors from neighbouring communities. There are currently over 4,200 vendors working in the region.

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