Nestle Foods Nigeria : Nestlé Professional boosts youth employment by providing Milo on the go

Hundreds of people in Nigeria are being trained to run their own businesses and get involved in job opportunities as part of Nestlé's entrepreneurial initiatives.

Nearly 300 people, especially youths, are benefiting from career and financial independence by promoting the launch of new cocoa malt drink Milo All In One Nutri-Mix in Lagos this month. This is part of Nestlé Professional's 'My Own Business ' (MYOWBU) and pushcart schemes, which guides its appointed operators to head their own street-vending micro-enterprise, and employ and manage street vendors.

Operators are given tools and training expertise on sales, management, hygiene standards, as well as safety and quality requirements. Nestlé Professional, the company's business that supplies the food service out-of-home industry, also helps them to find safe and clean kitchen areas to run their business from.

Each operator recruits and employs about 8-10 street vendors from neighbouring communities. Vendors are provided with a branded pushcart, a bike or a MYOWBU kit, which includes a beverage dispenser they strap on their back, to sell the new Milo drink to consumers in busy public areas such as open markets, streets, stadiums, lorry terminals and bus stops.

The new Milo All In One Nutri-Mix 40g powdered recipe, developed by experts at Nestlé's Research and Development Centre in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, offers Africans the same homemade nutritious and tasty beverage solution - but on the go.

This year, hundreds of people are also already benefiting from leading their own business and selling the new Milo drink in Accra, Ghana.

A total of 28 operators are now running their own micro-enterprises. They have employed and trained about 200 pushcart vendors and are supervising 28 kitchen staff.

Nestlé's latest Milo initiative is continuing to help operators and vendors improve their financial independence and salaries, compared to the average business owner or street seller in Nigeria and Ghana.

In 2015, more than 4,400 operators and vendors in the region took part in both MYOWBU and pushcart schemes to sell other Nestlé brands such as Nescafé coffee.

Nestlé's efforts to increase employment and support entrepreneurship in Central and West Africa is part of the company's way of doing business, which it calls 'Creating Shared Value'. It aims to provide opportunities and improve livelihoods for the communities in which it operates, while developing its own activities.