FrieslandCampina WAMCO: Every Nigerian Deserves Healthy Nutrition

With more than 150 years of experience in dairy leadership, FrieslandCampina has a strong footprint in Africa; proactively building its presence and increasing its scale and reach throughout the continent.

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa with a population of over 180 million people, making it a country of endless possibilities. The country’s foremost dairy company and market leader is FrieslandCampina WAMCO, an affiliate of the Royal FrieslandCampina in The Netherlands.

Providing branded high-quality dairy products throughout Nigeria and West Africa, FrieslandCampina WAMCO is a household name.

At the heart of its operations in Nigeria is the passion to produce quality dairy nutrition accessible to Nigerians. This is strongly rooted in the company’s mission and overall strategy for product delivery.

A key driver of this strategy is the concern about increasing malnutrition in the country. The Global Nutrition Report 2015 noted that children growing up healthy in Nigeria are in the minority and about 1.7 million Nigerian children were severely malnourished out of 17.3 million affected in the world according to the UNICEF.

“At the heart of its operations in Nigeria is the passion to produce quality dairy nutrition accessible to Nigerians. This is strongly rooted in the company’s mission and overall strategy for product delivery.”

The scourge of malnutrition continues to fuel the resolve of FrieslandCampina WAMCO‘s mission statement of nourishing Nigerians with quality dairy products. For over sixty years, the company has deliberately positioned itself as a provider of branded high quality dairy nutrition throughout Nigeria and West Africa. With a clear strategy of providing affordable nutrition through a range of low unit portion packs (LUPP) of its premium brands – Peak and Three Crowns evaporated and powdered milk – consumers can access quality dairy for as little as a nickel.

With the knowledge that through the daily consumption of milk and increased accessibility to quality dairy nutrition, consumers have the opportunity of getting up to 50% of the nutrients that they require daily for healthy living and which the body cannot make on its own.

This strategy is efficiently applied via the company’s extensive distribution network that features clear territory demarcation, managed by its secondary sales force. To achieve full territorial coverage, FrieslandCampina WAMCO works with key business partners (KBPs) who work market routes and are closely involved in charting the overall business direction.

Also strongly linked to its mission of nourishing Nigerians with quality dairy nutrition is a successful multi-billion-naira commercial-scale dairy farming project in Oyo state, Nigeria, where the company works with over 2,500 local dairy farmers under its Dairy Development Programme.

The programme seeks to empower local dairy farmers to improve their livelihood, raise raw milk quality and safety, increase farm productivity, and help farmers develop a steady market for their milk. For generations, these farmers have milked for subsistence but now things are changing with impressive results. This is where the parent company’s 150 years of dairy expertise comes in; to provide access to the right technology and training for farmers to make sure that from the grass-to-glass good quality is maintained throughout.

FrieslandCampina WAMCO wants to create a sustainable business model which will thrive for many years. Of the thousands of farmers engaged so far, many have increased their incomes by as much as 50% as they now have a steady market for their raw milk through the company and its reach into Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

On a recent courtesy visit to Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Managing Director and CEO Rahul Colaco, explained: “On our part, we are committed to raising dairy farming to a higher level in Nigeria and making small-scale entrepreneurs have pride in agriculture. Through our dairy development programme, we develop local farmers in three ways: through practical knowledge transfer by local FrieslandCampina dairy development officers; expert training on feeding, breeding, hygiene, disease control, and milk payment, and; financing of local infrastructure such as milk collection centres, boreholes, milk collection trucks, etc.”

“Having signed an MoU with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on Dairy Development, we want to take this partnership further, being key players in feeding Nigerians; for us this is a privilege and a responsibility that we are fully committed to. We believe this collaboration is crucial to addressing issues of nutrient security, dairy sufficiency including concerns of improving farmers’ income. We are the first dairy company in Nigeria to go into dairy development, and we plan to make it a nationwide project,” Mr Colaco noted.