The leading Nigeria’s brewery, Nigerian Breweries Plc, a subsidiary of Dutch brewer Heineken NV, said on October 14 that a new $311 million brewery in the southeastern city of Enugu will be completely operational on October 24, Reuters reported. The Ama Brewery began partial operations in March, producing at 1.5 million hectolitres per year. This will double to 3 million hectolitres from October, bringing total capacity at Nigeria's No. 1 brewer to 10 million hectolitres and helping it stay ahead of its nearest competitor, Guinness Nigeria.

Heineken owns 54 % of Nigerian Breweries, which is the most highly capitalised company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Nigerian Breweries spokesman Larry Agose told journalists the completion of the plant will round off a five-year 70 billion naira ($545 million) investment plan. As well as building the new plant, the plan involved modernising plants in five cities including the commercial capital Lagos. "These projects were designed to guarantee us the volumes needed to meet the challenges posed by the demand growth in the brewed products market," said Agose.

Nigerian Breweries made a net profit of 9.2 billion naira ($72 million) last year, a 103 % rise from 2001.

Highlighting the growing demand for alcoholic beverages in Nigeria, Guinness said last week its full-year profits to June 30 had increased by 60 % to 6.6 billion naira ($52 million).

15 October, 2003