By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Chief Executive of PZ Cussons, Mr Christos Giannopoulos, has said contrary to reports making the rounds on social media, the company is not planning to exit Nigeria.
Mr Giannopoulos said rather, the leading homecare product maker intends to continue to expand its operations in the country.
Speaking at the Alex-Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI) Ebonyi, during the inauguration of institution’s upgraded chemical laboratory, the PZ Cussons’ top shot urged members of the public to disregard the rumours.
“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,” Mr Giannopoulos declared.
Commenting on upgrading of the laboratory at AE-FUNAI, Mr Giannopoulos said the company partnered with the institution because of the premium it places on education.
According to him, PZ Cussons has been passionate about the promotion of education in general with a special focus on science.
“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 (ICT) 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,” he said.
On the partnership it had with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), the CEO explained that, “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 the 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.”
