We have no plans of leaving Nigeria-PZ Cussons

The PZ Cussons Africa, a leading homecare product maker, says the company has no plans of withdrawing its services and leaving Nigeria.
Christos Giannopoulos, Chief Executive Officer of PZ Cussons, Africa, made the declaration at the Alex-Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo Ebonyi, during the inauguration of institution’s upgraded chemical laboratory.
Giannopoulos described the news as `unfounded’ and urged the public to disregard it.
He said: “I am stating categorically that we are still in Nigeria, investing and growing together with the country.
“Quote me if you like, even on social media that the news is making the rounds is not correct.”
The PZ Cussons CEO noted that the upgrading of the laboratory at AE-FUNAI was furtherance to the partnership it had with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion.
He said: “This partnership is to provide state of the art equipment to some selected universities and research centres in the country.
“This agreement came into being based on our joint conviction that no meaningful breakthrough can be achieved in scientific enquires without providing necessary facilities and infrastructure that can compete with what is obtained globally.
“We also believe that government may not be able to bear the burden of achieving this goal alone.”
The PZ Cussons CEO noted that the company has been passionate about the promotion of education in general with special focus on science.
He said: “We established a foundation years ago to contribute our little quota in addressing some of the challenges in the nation’s educational sector, amongst other sectors.
“We constructed and donated over 70 furnished classrooms across the six geo-political zones of the country and built halls, Information Communication Technology infrastructure, in schools across the country.
“These projects cut across the education strata of elementary, tertiary and vocational centres and our initiative in the science education started with secondary schools.
“We supplied laboratory equipment to some secondary schools based on their elementary requirements and relevance, while sponsoring an innovation tagged: `laboratory on wheels or mobile laboratory’.
“This initiative visits secondary schools that lack such facilities, predominantly in rural areas.”