Nigeria: Nigerian Breweries announce worst February sales in 15 years

Nigerian Breweries (NB) has announced its worst February sales in 15 years due to a drop in beer consumption in Nigeria, Legit.ng reported on March 12.

The drop in consumption occurs as the Central Bank of Nigeria drained about 2.1 trillion old naira notes off circulation.

NB products include 33 Export lager beer, Williams dark ale, Turbo Kings dark ale, More lager beer, malt drinks, Maltina Pineapple, Maltina Vanilla, Amstel Malta Ultra, Star Radler Red Fruits, and Desperados.

Speaking on the low sales, Hans Essaadi the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries explained that Nigerians have spent hours — often in vain — waiting in ATM queues to withdraw banknotes.

He added: "Nigerian Breweries Plc like many other businesses, depends on cash for about 80% of its retail sales."

"Sales have been hit this quarter, not because people don’t have the appetite to consume, but because there’s no money. For the average man on the street, it’s a disaster.”

To ease the impact on sales, BusinessDay reports that Nigerian Breweries plans to help some of its registered outlets to procure so-called point of sale devices to encourage electronic payments by customers.

Essaadi said: "We believe that with the demographics of this country, being the biggest economy in Africa, business will come back when the cash situation normalizes."

13 March, 2023