Times of Eswatini

King to keep an eye on Kellogg Tolaram “Kellogg Tolaram invested E210m, while government built the factory shell for E200m.”

- Bonisile Makhubu

“His Majesty King Mswati III said the country continued to strive as a total of 18 152 jobs were created over the past three years, despite the challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

MATSAPHA – Kellogg Tolaram will be under the watchful eye of His Majesty King Mswati III. The King said he would keep an eye on the recently-establishe­d food company to monitor its growth and success in the country. He said it was critical to protect and jealously guard such investment­s because they contribute­d handsomely to the welfare and livelihood­s in many ways. The King also planted a tree within the company premises, which he also said he would return time and again to monitor its growth.

Kellogg Tolaram Eswatini (Pty) Ltd was establishe­d in the country in 2019. It stared manufactur­ing noodles in 2021 and has a vision of expanding its products to cereals and other food products in the next few years. The King made this statement repeatedly when he officially opened the Matsapha-based company yesterday. “The nation will be pleased to know that the company is at its infancy stage. Expansion plans are to add more lines in the near future which will proportion­ately increase employment opportunit­ies for emaSwati.”

He further noted that additional land had been reserved for future expansion into other products such as cereals; which the Kellogg’s brand is synonymous with, adding that he would be on watch to witness the successes of the company. “The company has employed over 221 emaSwati.

“This has contribute­d immensely to job creation and has improved many livelihood­s of emaSwati. Besides the employment of emaSwati, there are multiple benefits that have come with the establishm­ent of this factory, such as vendors the transport industry and households to mention but a few,” His Majesty mentioned.

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Also, among the positive spinoffs, he mentioned the payment of government taxes which, in turn, were utilised to provide various essential services for the nation.

He said the arrival of this company was a great milestone in the country’s quest to attract foreign direct investment to our shore. “The key pillars for sustainabl­e developmen­t and economic prosperity for any country is to have vibrant economic growth. We are, therefore, grateful that Kellogg has identified our kingdom as an ideal investment destinatio­n. We welcome them with warm hands and we want to assure the company directors that they have made a good decision to consider our kingdom.” His Majesty assured that emaSwati would make everything possible for this business to grow in leaps and bounds, pointing out that Eswatini’s investment climate was conducive for both local and foreign direct investment. “We are confident that with our highly skilled labour force the company will achieve its desired objectives. We are pleased to note that, Kellogg Tolaram has invested a total of E210 million into this business, while government constructe­d the factory shell at a cost of E200 million.”

When noting the challenges faced by this and other companies, the King said negative effects

of COVID-19 could not be over-emphasised as they reversed the gains accumulate­d over many years of hard work.

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“This served as a huge blow to our set targets of achieving developmen­t status by the year 2022. Many companies closed down, people lost their jobs and livelihood­s we were impacted socially, economical­ly and otherwise.”

He said since economies around the globe had been impacted negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic shocks, the kingdom was pursuing the implementa­tion of the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP).

“The plan has three priority areas which are, to grow the country’s GDP through changes in the macro-economic conditions; create jobs by increasing productive economic activities and lastly, to fast-track government revenue mobilisati­on by improving the fiscal space which will provide resources to implement our national developmen­t plan.”

He said the country continued to strive as a total of 18, 152 jobs were created over the past three years, despite the challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A total of 49 new investment­s were realised in local and foreign direct investment, in the form of retail, commercial banking, property developmen­t, manufactur­ers investment on infrastruc­ture such as shopping complexes, fuel filling stations, warehouses, hardware stores, and many others.”

 ?? (Pics: Bonisile Makhubu) ?? His Majesty King Mswati III inspecting various department­s at the Kellogg Tolaram factory during the official opening.
(Pics: Bonisile Makhubu) His Majesty King Mswati III inspecting various department­s at the Kellogg Tolaram factory during the official opening.

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