Swiss food and drinks company Nestle is cutting 15 per cent of its workforce in 21 African countries because it says it overestimated the rise of the middle class, the Financial Times reported.

"We thought this would be the next Asia, but we have realised the middle class here in the region is extremely small and it is not really growing,” Cornel Krummenacher, chief executive for Nestlé’s equatorial Africa region, told the Financial Times in an interview.

He also said Nestle would be lucky to reach annual 10 per cent growth in Africa in future years, and with the cuts, the company hoped to break even next year.

Nestle Nigeria reported a 51 per cent fall in pretax profit to 3.48 billion naira ($17.51 million) in the first quarter. -Reuters