‘Why NBC is promoting sustainable growth’

The Legal, Public Affairs and Communications Director of Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC), Mrs. Sade Morgan, has said Nigeria’s leading beverage manufacturer promotes sustainable and inclusive development, to build better communities.

She said NBC had invested over $1 billion since 2014, with plans to invest 600 million euros between 2019 and 2023.

Morgan, who was with the company’s Country Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Mr. Ekuma Eze, and the Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Mr. Barnabas Eke, spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt.

She noted that at a time in 2017, the company was one of the highest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) contributors to Nigeria.

She said: “The basic philosophy that we operate with is that our business is only as sustainable as the communities we operate in. We always endeavour to invest in programmes and partnerships that help to build better communities around the world, and always promote sustainable and inclusive development.”

NBC’s Country CSR manager said it had empowered youths through scholarships and skill acquisition, and ensured environmental friendliness by phasing out trucks considered hostile to the ozone layer.

He said: “Now, our trucks do not break down again. We have phased out trucks that are not friendly to the ozone layer. Our refrigerators do not contribute to ozone layer depletion.

“We invest a lot in communities where we do our business and even beyond those communities. NBC has reduced carbon emission into the atmosphere and it has also invested in effluent treatment plants.”

On the quality of Coca-Cola, Eze maintained that contrary to belief, the quality remained the same, adding that the concentrate syrup is same all over the world.

He said: “In Nigeria, we are using natural sugar. The difference is that the range of Coke we have in Nigeria is not as much as we have in America, but the truth is that Coke is the same everywhere in the world and our products in Nigeria are of the highest quality.

“Counterfeiting is not a huge problem to NBC. We have a robust tracking and monitoring system to ensure that our products are not