CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION 

To a large extent, the social, economics, and political development of a country depend on the quality of man power that it has at disposal. In commenting on this ‘‘Kuznets’’ said the major man power of an industrially, advanced country is not it’s physical equipment, it is the body of knowledge harnessed from tested findings and discoveries of science and the certainty of training of its population to use the knowledge.

The important of manpower has forced countries to invest in manpower and training for example, countries in the developing world emphasize training of quality manpower because they believe that availability of skilled manpower would increase the productivity of workers. 

Nigerian government has invested on it and has done this by offering training scholarship and encouraging state government to operate manpower training schemes. This effort led to the establishment of the federal training center in 2008 in Nigeria.

In the second development plan [2003-2007] the government also established three parastatals to train manpower both in private and public sector. These includes; the Industrial Training Fund [ITF], Nigeria Council of Management Development and Administrative Staff college of Nigeria (ASCON). These institutions were established in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively. Then importance given to training and staff development in any organization cannot be over emphasized.

Indeed, training is an investment rather than a cost to any organization. In commenting on this, “Oshisami” said that training is an investment and that investment is a commitment of resources to be generated in the future. With training as an investment, the commitment constitutes the cost of training.

The asset acquired can be regarded as education, skill, mental or managerial capability, while the expected future stream of increased earnings constitutes the benefits.

International Tobacco Company was established in 2004 in Nigeria and was firstly registered as Kwara Tobacco Company Limited. The building of the factory and its offices and installation of machinery took place during 2005 in a site in the industrial area at Ilorin and production of cigarette commenced early 2006. Meanwhile, the company was commission on the 8th of May, 2008, and was presided over by His Excellency and late Sir Ahmadu Bello the Sarduna of Sokoto. The company was owned by the United African Company Limited in partnership with the Northern Nigeria Investment Limited. Kwara Tobacco Company introduced a market during the following years and a staff of about two hundred and twenty one people. In April 2008, Philip Morris incorporated purchased controlling interest in the company.

Philip Morris is one of the largest Cigarette Companies in the world with its headquarters in New York, United States of America. Philip Morris Cigarettes are sold in virtually every country of the world and are manufactured in over thirty-three countries. After becoming part of this organization, the name of the company was changed to Philip Morris Nigeria with the research facilities and technical knowledge of Philip Morris available. Philip Morris Nigeria embarked in a large scale expansion to increase the production capacity of the factory to produce the different types of cigarette and pectin required for the Nigerian market and to ensure that the quality of its products would meet international standards.

The marketing leaf, account personnel, engineering and purchasing departments have expanded accordingly and the head office of the company is now situated at 7up building Apapa Lagos.

In companies with the indigenization decree, 40% of the shares were sold to Nigerian, including the employees of the company. Consequently the name of the company was changed to International Cigarette Company Limited in 2008 but the company retained the Anme Philip Morris Nigeria as its trading name.